Social Class In Schools

During his time in prison, Adolf Hitler wrote that people should, “Be proud of...people when [they] don 't have to be ashamed of [their] social class.” Social class has always been an issue in the world, and one of the largest separating factor between people. As Ellen Brantlinger wrote in her novel, Dividing Classes, “Social class divides how students participate-or do not participate-in activities, and it influences peer acceptance and rejection.” Participation in school activities have a very large effect on a person’s life, and social class can diminish this effect. However, some schools have constantly been underfunded, some schools have been well overfunded, and some schools have been barely holding on to their debts. In Aldous Huxley’s …show more content…
A majority of students are now being measured by their earning prospects and their living conditions. Lower class students have less opportunities to receive scholarships, and cannot receive the proper training they need to work. But is school to blame for this? Hochschild later says that “Overall, about a third of the variation in students’ achievement is determined by what state they live in. But inequalities within a state can be just as severe.” State funding and wealth distribution are vastly affecting how students are getting opportunities. Many states, such as California, New York, and Nevada have extremely high urban density, and are very densely populated. However, according to Hochschild, in her novel The American Dream and the Public Schools, “In Yonkers, New York, for example, schools in the northern and eastern section were built relatively recently and have beautiful grounds and excellent facilities; schools in the southwestern section were built in some cases a century ago, with tiny playgrounds of cracked and slanted cement and dismal laboratories and libraries.” These areas which have dense populations are some areas which are extremely welloff, and some areas that are struggling …show more content…
In his novel, the world is controlled by a large central government where people are produced in factories, and given a “social class” based on how they turned out. The social classes are Greek Letters, going from Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, then to Epsilons. When several young students asked Leina, a genetic scientist, how the working world worked, she tells them that “Everyone works for everyone else. We can 't do without any one. Even Epsilons…” The idea of everyone working for everyone else, even the lowest social class, The Epsilons, is a remarkable goal, and could potentially increase the benefits that people in society. However,later on in the novel, The government leader, The Controller, says that “The optimum population is modeled on the iceberg- eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above.” The contrast between Leina, a Gamma, and The Controller, an Alpha lawmaker, can be seen as different perceptions of society from different social classes. While Leina sees the world as a happy place where everyone works together, The Controller sees the world as mostly lower-class. Later on in the novel, children are being taught things using a sleep teaching methods to force them to remember it. One of the things that they are taught is “The more stitches the less riches..." This saying means