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It has long been stated that the purpose of school was to teach children about life. However, the theories articulated by Jean Anyon and Richard Rodriguez, which appear in the text, Rereading America Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing, suggest that students are learning about life within the constraints of their own family backgrounds, not about life as it could be with a diverse and nonrestrictive education. Each of these authors raises serious questions about the academic system in America, including are children really getting the best education possible, or are they being limited by external factors, over which they have no control?
In the United States, every child is entitled to receive a free public school education, but schools vary in terms of the types of students they teach, socioeconomically or ethnically speaking, and the types of course curricula and teaching methods they emphasize. In her essay, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” Jean Anyon theorizes that it is the “hidden curriculum” embedded in all public school systems, which keeps certain students from completely realizing their potential. She takes the role of scientific observer, conducting a study of five middle schools in New Jersey. Out of these five schools, two of them could be socially classified as “Working Class,” while the other three were either “Middle Class,” “Professional Elite” and “Executive Elite.” Each school’s expectation of its students, she asserts, is defined by their social status and economic background. In this way, they are encouraged to play the role that has already been defined for them by society. Anyon cites specific sociological studies to support her hypotheses. She writes, “Bowles and Gintes [176] for example, have argued that students in different social-class backgrounds are rewarded for classrooms behaviors that correspond to personality traits allegedly rewarded in the different occupational strata - the working classes for docility and obedience, the managerial classes for initiative and personal assertiveness. Basil Bernstein [177], Pierre Bourdieu [177], and Michael W. Apple [17], focusing on school knowledge, have argued that knowledge and skills leading to social power and regard (medical, legal, managerial) are made available to the advantaged social groups but are withheld from the working classes, to whom a more practical curriculum is offered (manual skills, clerical knowledge)” (45).
The “Working Class” school educates students whose parents are unskilled laborers who earn little more than $10,000 per year. The classroom work is procedure, with steps carefully outlined for the students, who are then evaluated on how accurately they follow them. There is no type of oral discussion or dialogue between teachers and students, for it is assumed that these children will not be utilizing public-speaking skills in the workplace. Grammar and punctuation are kept as simple as possible, with teachers’ explaining that this is all they will ever need in the world they are being prepared to enter. “Middle Class” schools fit neatly into the social class structure, and as the name implies, they are comprised of students from middle-income backgrounds. Their schoolwork is less procedural, and more about finding correct answers to questions. Unlike the “working class” schools, where decisions are made for the pupils, these students are encouraged to think for themselves. However, creativity is not a part of this educational curriculum, because, again, for it will serve no purpose in their future employment. The “Professional Elite” educates the children of career professionals, and these children are not only expected to perform assigned tasks, but must understand the meaning behind these tasks. Here, creativity flourishes, and students freely discuss ideas and work on independent projects. The “Executive Elite” schools are structured for the children of top business executives, where logic and analytical thought processes are taught. These are children who are inundated with statistical data, for it is assumed that they, too, will be entering the business sector.
Jean Anyon’s classification of schools reinforce the notion that children’s futures have already been predetermined; they have little say in the matter, because the hidden curriculum of their respective schools dictates which path they will inevitably follow. While the elite schools stress “decision making” and “choice” (48), she concludes that the most important decisions, what opportunities will be available to them as adults, have already been made for them. They are, according to Anyon’s theory, little more than instruments used to perpetuate the class system.
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Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez takes quite a different approach in his essay, “The Achievement of Desire,” in which he contends that the ethnic child of a modest background seeks to distance himself from his parents, who to them represent an embarrassing lack of education. He disputes the notion that schools deny students the opportunity to exist beyond their family or cultural backgrounds. In fact, quite the contrary; they encourage these children to distinguish themselves from their parents, so that they can better assimilate into American society. Rodriguez bases his theory on the concept of the “scholarship boy,” or the child who equates excelling academically with the ultimate achievement of his future desires. According to Rodriguez, the “scholarship boy” soon becomes aware “that his academic success distances him from a life that he loved, even from his own memory of himself” (64). Rodriguez maintains that the ethnic child is forced to exist in two completely different and foreign worlds � that in the classroom and that in his family’s living room. As a result, there is a conflict between the scholarship boy’s sense of loyalty to his parents, and the obligation he feels to succeed as a person in his own right. Education to the scholarship boy is not simply a means to a desirable end, it is the end in and of itself. This child desires to transcend the boundaries imposed by race, economics and society, and the only way to accomplish his goals is through education. Unfortunately, however, this intellectual distance fostered between parent and child also forges an emotional rift between them. Rodriguez incorporates several first-person narratives into his inquiry, along with his own personal recollections of how the scholarship boy transfers the “allegiance” he once felt for his parents to his “teacher, the new figure of authority” (65). He also notes how such a child also seeks to remove himself from any type of cultural references, for they serve only as reminders of the type of life he is trying to escape. Using himself as an example, Rodriguez explains, “After dinner, I would rush to a bedroom with papers and books. As often as possible, I resisted parental pleas to `save lights by coming to the kitchen to work. I kept so much, so often to myself… I hoarded the pleasures of learning. Alone for hours… I rarely looked away from my books�or back on my memories. Nights when relatives visited and the front rooms were warmed by Spanish sounds, I slipped quietly out of the house” (67). In “The Achievement of Desire,” Richard Rodriguez contends that an ethnic child is encouraged to expand his horizons, but must turn his back upon his family and culture to do so. But, in the final analysis, is such a trade-off worth it?
The essays of Jean Anyon and Richard Rodriguez discuss the tremendous influence of the school environment on impressionable young minds. It can open future doors for them, but sometimes this means closing some important doors to the past. Are children being subliminally encouraged to follow in their parents’ footsteps, or are they supposed to turn their backs on their backgrounds and travel their own separate and distinctive path? It is the schools and the curricula they develop which points students into certain directions, and this is a responsibility, both authors emphasize, that should neither be underestimated nor taken for granted.
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