Alvin Khambay

Feb. 2, 2010
Critical Inquiry: Anyon

As I read the essay “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon, I

notice several important facts that stick out to me. One, why do professional and elite schools

have children who learn how to critically think for themselves? Two, why must the working

class be taught to obey just because of social standing? Anyon says in her book is that there is a

hidden curriculum and I intend to find out what that truly means.

I have read Anyon’s essay several times to find out the answer to my questions. After

several times of reading I started to notice words around the main point and inferred that the

professional and elite schools are of course at the top of the social standings, and they are also

governed by the elite and professional. These top of the tier schools learn how to critically think

and work independently, while being questioned to solve a problem in their own hands. That

theory of teaching differs from the lower social class teachings so we see it as on another level

and at a much faster pace. Although we might cover the same material, the elite and professional

schools are advancing on another level because instead of just getting the answer, they are

challenged about how they got the answer. The elite and professional school’s pace is also looks

faster than the working class’s pace because it seems as though the working class can stay on a

topic for days and the teacher wont explain it at all, but then the elite and professional class

doesn’t do the same, they actually have multiple topics they are learning and complete each task

at their own pace.

I have learned something through all my years in school before college; the work that

was done was a joke that did teach me how to subconsciously obey. How I never knew that

amazes me, but when I look back I see that teachers were out to make me obey with these

“systems” in place to punish us for bad behavior. So I wonder why the working class or any
Alvin Khambay
Feb. 2, 2010
Critical Inquiry: Anyon

lower social class must be taught to obey because we are all the way at the bottom. Why

exactly? I feel that there isn’t an even equality of learning between professional schools and

working class schools. Working class schools are made to teach a worker, one that obeys

mechanically, while the people from professional schools are made to govern over the workers.

A business needs workers to function and then also needs the “higher-ups” to control resources

and how profits are spent in a company. Children in working class schools are exposed to that

ideal at an early age and are most likely expected to become a part of that ideal in adulthood. It

is how America is run; the social standing of a person in the working class will be restricted to

worker and a very slim chance to escape that cycle that requires workers.

Reading Anyon’s essay has really opened my eyes to the “hidden curriculum” that

schools have been using to teach children. I feel that there shouldn’t be a boundary between

what we can or cannot learn. The pace and level of learning from school to school should at

least be set at a standard, where at least a student is not on the same topic for days. Although we

need workers, the whole system of obeying isn’t exactly fair, it pretty much says that you are

going to be a worker. I feel that Anyon’s work is a marvelous piece of research and hopes that

one day the equality of social classes learning can be settle one day.