Talking Point #8

Jean Anyon; "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work"

Author's Argument:

Anyon argues that there are many things about schooling that are still a mystery to some. She also argues that there are some things that teachers are hiding so that all of the details of how to perform a certain task are not told to the students, which enables them not to perform or even learn correctly.

Quotes:

1. "The teachers rarely explain why the work is being assigned, how it might connect to other assignments, or what the idea is that lies behind the procedure or gives it coherence and perhaps meaning or significance."
When teachers do not connect a lesson to students, the students are unable to focus and connect ideas and thoughts that they might have on a certain topic. After a teacher teaches a lesson, the students do not remember the skill that they were taught so then they cannot link it to previous lessons that were taught to them. With them not being able to link the lessons, they cannot learn a skill of being able to link multiples things at once.

2. "The project is chosen and assigned by the teacher from a box of 3-by-5 index cards. On the card the teacher has written the question to be answered, the books to use, and how much to write. Explaining the cards to the observer, the teacher said, "It tells them exactly what to do, or they couldn't do it."

By the teacher doing this, it does not enable the students to figure out how to research, bring thoughts together, and do a project on their own. By the teacher providing all of the information, there is really no major work that needs to be done besides putting the actually project together because the research that is needed to be done and all of the other materials is already provided by the teacher. The students then are not able to the students in a way to speak out how they would if they wrote the project in their own tone and not in the teachers. By the teacher wanted them to write the paper how he wants, the students are not able to claim an identity as a writer because they have always been told how to write. In a way it is not like letting a bird out of the nest because if the bird lives in the nest forever the bird will not be able to live. It is the same for the students because as they move on through school, they will not know how to wrote on their own because the information has always been provided for them.

3. "The products of work should not be like anybody else's and should show individuality."

Even someone does anything they want to leave a mark on it that will be known as their own. Many people do not like to copy someone else's work and they want to make it their own. When someone starts a new fashion trend they do it to break art from the look of everyone else and when people being to copy their trend then a new trend is made. The same thing goes for school work. The way people type papers, the way they make the title page, the way that they present the whole paper is a way of expressing who you are. When you are not unique and show individuality you become just another face in the crowd, but when you do your own thing then you are singled out because you are known for certain techniques that you use in the paper.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
Anyon is showing not only the people that read this article but the world that there is more for the students to learn. Also there is a lot of information that the teachers are not facilitating out to the students. With the teachers not getting this information out to the students, the students are unable to set themselves apart individually from the rest of the students that are in their class and that will be in their future classes. With the teachers giving instruction to the students on how they should do the project, the students are unable to learn how the project should be setup. When the students begin future projects, the skill of being able to figure and decode the project is not there because the students have always been given how they should exactly do the project out.