Talking Points 8

"Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Schooling"
By: Anyon


1.) “It will be suggested that there is a "hidden curriculum" in schoolwork that has profound implications for the theory - and consequence - of everyday activity in education.... “
~This reminded me of the hidden education in children’s books and movies that Christensen talked about. I thought this was an interesting idea.

2.) “In math, when two-digit division was introduced, the teacher in one school gave a four-minute lecture on what the terms are called (which number is the divisor, dividend, quotient, and remainder). The children were told to copy these names in their notebooks. Then the teacher told them the steps to follow to do the problems, saying, "This is how you do them." The teacher listed the steps on the board, and they appeared several days later as a chart hung in the middle of the front wall: "Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down." The children often did examples of two-digit division.”
~I think that only giving a four minute lecture on the terms is wrong how is a student going to understand the material if they don’t understand the terms. I think being a teacher you need to have all different kinds of methods for teaching. You can’t tell a student there is only one way to do a problem.

3.) “In both working-class schools, work in language arts is mechanics of punctuation (commas, periods, question marks, exclamation points), capitalization, and the four kinds of sentences. One teacher explained to me, "Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use." Regarding punctuation, either a teacher or a ditto stated the rules for where, for example, to put commas.”
~I was kind of shocked that a teacher would say that all the students will ever use is simple punctuation. What does she think that these kids will not need the other information she doesn’t know what these kids will become in the future.


I thought this article was a good read. I found the study that was done in this article interesting. I liked how you can really see the difference in each school in the way the kids are taught. I also liked how there were examples of every point Anyon made. The difference in the different schools didn’t really surprise me. There were something in each school that did surprise me like when one teacher told a girl that she was wrong for thinking there was a different way in making the grid they were doing. I think if a student thinks of a different way of doing an activity you should let them share it with the class because it might be a way some other students in the class learn the activity. I defiantly could see the differences in each different school. I don’t think it is right that the children’s schoolings depends on how much money their parents have and where they live.