Jean Anyon Response

Ariele Silva

English 1100

September 23, 2015

Prof. Young

~ Consider your own educational experience against Jean Anyon’s essay. Do you think her position still hold merit today?

When do stereotypes become real? They become real when we make them our own reality. In accordance to school systems and how well our public education is in term of class there is a significant gap between classes. From working class, to middle class and upper class each education system varies. If I were asked on my thoughts of how each education is for their respective classes, I would have answered as follows. For the working class/ lower class the first thing that comes to mind is a rough school environment with broken desks, torn and dated books and teachers who genuinely don’t care about teaching students. When thinking of middle class, my thoughts are on normal nice desks, up to date textbooks and schools supplies and a friendly learning environment. For upper class schools, I picture white walls with beautiful decor, fancy desks, expensive uniforms, the latest technology and textbooks and a bunch of ungrateful snobby kids. Those are all my thoughts because those were the stereotypes of the class education system that I grew up with. My own education system, I would have to say would be an upper middle class. I was in between a middle and upper class school system, not high enough for upper class but technically not in middle class either. My school had modern up to date textbooks, fairly good technology, we had a clean atmosphere and a positive learning environment. The teachers in my school genuinely cared about their students and would take their time teaching the material and offer extra help after school hours. In reference to Jean Anyon’s essay, her statistics fit the stereotype of what I learned about the classes educational system. Some teachers were narrow minded into textbook teaching and only having one way of doing things while others threw in their own notes and problems. Other teachers didn’t bother or care enough to thoroughly teach the students on how to do certain math problems like division. They would just say here it is and it’s this, while other teachers dissected the problem to the point of teaching the student not only the step by step procedure but even teaching them the mathematical vocabulary. I do believe that class plays a part in your education but the students themselves have the major role. As many people say “make it or break it”. If you were in the working class educational system, you have to make the most of it as a student and work hard to persevere and make your way out of that class. By progressing in any kind of education and finding a well paying job you can leave that class and work your way up. Not only is the power only to the students by it also depends on the teachers as well. If a teacher genuinely cares about their students it doesn’t matter what class they are in, as long as they give 110% in their teachings. There could be an amazing teacher in the working class and a teacher who simply doesn’t care in the upper class. It's all about opportunity and ambition. Although Jean Anyon’s essay does hold merit, I do believe that with the years that have gone by obviously the statistics have changed and that young people today can be more motivated to move up in the world and strive to be in a better class with hard work and perseverance.