Essay On Social Class Schools

For the most part, I agree with the statement above due to the achievement levels of schools that contain different social classes. Students in the upper class are provided with a higher quality education than the middle class and the working class students receive a poor quality education. Students who live in neighborhoods with high poverty rates tend to receive the lowest quality education in the nation. These differences are due to amount and quality of materials, teachers and paraeducators, and the different environments and school conditions. In Oprah’s special report that included switching students from inner city schools with students from suburban schools, there were many obvious differences. The students from the inner city mainly lived in neighborhoods with a lot of poverty and some violence, while the students in the other school lived in wealthier, safer neighborhoods. The differences included quality of teachers, resources, and facilities. When the students from the inner city school sat in on a class, they realized that they were being robbed of an education in their original school because the material being taught was preparing students for college and many of them had no idea what was going on. The suburban school also had a new gym, lots of computers, and lots of materials such as books. In the other school, their gym was run down and the ceiling leaked, they did not have as many computers and they were older, and many of their textbooks were falling apart. This is a clear example of how socio-economic status impacts the quality of education students receive. The suburban students are much more prepared for college than the inner-city students. Even though the students from both school work hard, the wealthier ones have a greater chance of getting degrees and staying in the middle and upper class, while the students who live in poverty are more likely to get jobs that do not even require a high school degree and will remain in poverty as they grow up. This supports Anyon’s statement that students of different social class backgrounds are still likely to be exposed to qualitatively different types of educational knowledge. …show more content…
Anyon also discusses the differences in quality of curriculum between the different social class schools. In working-class schools, students are taught the basics, mainly procedures and facts, and rarely get the opportunity to show their creativity and think for themselves. These schools also lack independent and inquiry research assignments and the students are taught to follow routine tasks almost daily. In middle class schools, comprehension of all subjects is extremely stressed. Although the teachers go into more detail about topics than working class schoolteachers do, they only teach far enough for the students to have a good generalization of the topic before moving on. In upper class schools, teachers focus on individual discovery and creativity and want the students to learn from experience. There is more time to work collaboratively with others and students are encouraged to think for themselves. Some of the most important goals for students in upper class schools are creativity and personal development. Because of these major differences in the quality of education between social classes, our society tends to stay the same with