The underlying threats of Hidden Curriculum in American public schools

Tai Lam California State University, USA 2009

Education in USA has witnessed great controversy nowadays. The ebullient argument regarding the purposes of schooling is between the traditional curriculum and popular trend of Hidden Curriculum, the unwritten social rules and expectations of behavior that is designed according to the childrens social and cultural backgrounds. Such curriculum does currently exist in most of public schools and cause much of public attention. School, the primary institutional carrier of formal education, is unavoidably listed on the agenda of debating. What makes the public concerned about is not how such curriculum does reflect the kind of schooling the student receives but the latent harms to the public education objectives it promotes, because this injustice teaching procedure would create a societal crack in socio-cultural aspects. The trend of hidden curriculum can be perceived in some public elementary schools where pupils of different ethnical backgrounds live in the same area. Hence, this produces inequalities between pupils of different cultures and results in creating social prejudice in schools. The research and inquiry survey were made in
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some different schools, one of which

was conducted in a third-grade

math class from a local elementary. The others also have the similar phenomenon to such. The pupils of the conducted research are mostly from working class families. The teacher was reviewing the method of how to divide a long number by one-digit number. For eliciting, she wrote on the board an example problem (e.g. divide 171 by 3) and asked if anyone in class could solve it. One of the pupils stood up, then went to the board and solved the problem in the normal procedure as taught one day before. The solution procedure took him seven steps altogether (as shown He was given a good comment by the teacher. But then, another boy-pupil (later known as from another culture) showed that he could present the solution by another style. His presentation method is quite different from that in American schools. It took him five steps to finish the solution (as shown : This presentation has been used in some of Indo-Chinese

cultural schools so far. After the problem was solved, he received an innocuous comment on his performance. The teacher further points out that this was not encouraged. Her remarks had made this innocent pupil embarrassed and caused him to feel like conducting a wrong-doing. In the term of mathematical concept, the latter clearly performed in the faster way than the former. Lets not analyze and ignore the logicality of the procedure of the latter performance. The main point is

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that he did get the right answer, and his presenting should be encouraged and appreciated rather than discouraged or disappreciated. The above phenomenon of hidden curriculum within schools creates inequalities between pupils of different cultural backgrounds. A pupils schooling treatment and type that he or she receives are reflected by his or her culturefavored conditions. Pupils of less-favored culture, i.e. different from the teacher him/herself or from the majority, are considered as inferior to their more-favored culture peers. The noticeable distinguishing is that the pupils are culturalized differently due to unshared cultural backgrounds. Children from more culturally favored families are generally more successful in public schools than those from less favored ones. What is the reason for this? Does the latters inferior performance result in their family environment that plays a big role in pupils education? Of course not, the reason is the so-called hidden curriculum that results. The ways the pupils are treated outcome the methods they are taught. Certainly, it will effect the pupils learning achievement. This unwritten curriculum easily leads to prejudice and discrimination not only among the pupils and schools but also among the pupils themselves. Certainly, such curriculum would best serve a certain socio-political purposes and generate the future privileged stratum in the harmonious society. That is the warning sign for societal instability and insecurity. The illustrative phenomenon coincides what Anyon illustrates in his essay. A slight
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difference is not social-class based but cultural-based. As Anyon points out in her essay, in the working class schools, work is following the steps of a procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice (Anyon 177), while in the middle class schools, work is [just] getting the right answer (180). No matter what procedure is carried out, accumulating enough right answers (Anyon 180) is the best option. This hidden curriculum could be defined as the values that are taught to the pupils through the attitudes and ideas of the teachers. Often, teachers have a subconscious concept about pupils from different social or cultural backgrounds. The main point of the controversy is not how one performs the school tasks decides what achievement one will gain, but how ones economic or cultural background determines ones educational success! To reconcile such underlying harms caused by the said hidden curriculum, the following considerations should correspondently be given for the before-eye solution. One of these would involve the school and family environment. If the learning environment (i.e. school and teachers themselves) supports the pupils family environment, the pupils will be more encouraging in schooling and, consequently, will be more successful. On the contrary, they will be more discouraging than the others if their home environment is not supported by the school. A pupils achievement primarily relies on the mutual support between his
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family and school. Another solution measure is to design a more acceptable curriculum to meet the pupils different backgrounds. Why not consider applying eclectic approach to design a multicultural-supported curriculum at public schools? This approach, however, offers the greatest flexibility and requires a considerable focus on the socio-cultural based curricula and resources. Schools, if necessary, periodically reevaluate their curriculum choices and frequently make changes accordingly as needs or circumstance changes. The above suggestions are given nothing more than the changes that the school curriculum should be made if we desire to see a promising betterment for the current education in public schools. Lets not spend more time to mention what exactly the purposes of school are in our country. There have been plenty of conceptions and ideas concerning this, from a narrower notion like to teach children the way to learn, to a farther view " to make the world a better place". After all, it might be acknowledged that school is appropriate preparation for future endeavors, whatever they may be. The purpose of school is to equip students with the essential skills they will need to move on to the next stage of their lives, whatever that stage may be. Thats the target we educators should aim at and the whole society would easily accept. What we want to see is the geniuses that will dedicate for the whole country, not just devote for a certain class of population in the nation.

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Reference: 1. Anyon, Jean. From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. 2. Colombo, Gary et al. (2007). Rereading America. New York.

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