Alex Arceo 1

Alex Arceo

Professor Ryan

English 101, 11:00 AM

11/10/2019

Working vs Executive Elite Education

Many Americans still believe that all children have a different way of learning things,

often called learning styles. Often believing that children can only learn one way and not any

other. Jean Anyon goes against the grain believing that it is not the learning style, but the social

class that defines how a student is being prepared for the world they are going to enter. Meaning

that the children are just victims to the social class they were born in. As a result of this the

children are being taught for the jobs that their social classes are generally involved in.

Working class education is one based on the teacher showing the students the steps of

how to do something and the students simply copying the steps down. They are not allowed

creativity or any kind and are forced into the mentality that there is only one way of doing

something. For example, in the article “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”

created by Jean Anyon it is said, “ You’re confusing yourselfs… Remember, when you do this,

it’s the same steps over and over again--and that’s the way division always is” (Anyon 4). The

teacher made no attempt to explain why they are doing the steps and leaves the students just as

confused as they started.I had experienced this kind of teaching in many of my classes

throughout the year. The one I remember the most was my 8th grade algebra class. The teacher,

which will be called Mr. G, would simply put down the steps from a book for an equation and

tell us to copy it down. Never explaining to us as to why we needed to do it this way. With this
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kind of teaching style my grades in that class were significantly lower because I did not

understand the concepts that were taught and had to look for help with my classmates who also

had trouble understanding the concepts. With this kind of education experience the students

valued the steps more than the answer often leading to people copying the works of others. It

also teaches them to be dependant on others and to follow orders to the exact mark. With this

kind of teaching style in the working class schools it teaches students to become dormant

non-thinking robots only to follow the commands of those in-charge.

Meanwhile with the Executive Elite education experience the children are expected to

think for themselves. Making sure that the students are always developing their critical thinking

skills. The children were expected to question anything that they disagreed with and then work it

over with their peers. Valuing the thought process of solving the problem over the answer itself.

As said by one of the teachers in the Executive Elite school, “Even if you don’t know [the

answers] , if you think logically about it, you can figure it out” (Anyon 12). This shows that even

the teachers value the thought process of the children and know how powerful and resourceful it

is to them. In all my years of education I had only ever had one class that could fall under the

Executive Elite education. It was only recently and it was my psychology class with Mr. S. Since

day one of his class he would ask us questions about what we were going over to get us more

involved and thinking. He had a rule that everyone in the class needed to raise their hand. Even

those that did not know the answer. There was also a second part of the rule that he had made. It

was that if no-one raised their hands he would then stop asking questions and assign each one of

us a handout and reading which was due the next day. This was used as the punishment.

Knowing this it forced the students to start thinking about what he had just asked and with this it
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actually made us learn more than just sitting there writing notes. The student that would be called

on were able to express their thoughts on the subject without feeling like they were being pointed

out for their ideas. Because of this it quickly became my favorite class of that year. The

punishment he used was simply to get us to start thinking, but he had actually used it on us one

day and the class seemed to revert back to the working class education. With this kind of class

setting it helped improve my thinking to allow me to think more critically and I would often find

myself analyzing things more often while taking this class also.

Having been taught in both working class and the executive elite class the difference

between the education is night and day. For society to grow we need more children that are being

taught important critical thinking skills and be able to find answers to problems creatively. Not

being afraid to express their ideas. The fact that the social class that you are born in affects the

kind of you get is one that I find absurd. All people should be able to experience the education

that each social class has to offer and learn from them.
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Anyon, Jean. "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work" Journal of Education, volume

162 issue #1, 1980.