Jean Anyon And Jonathan Kozol Summary

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Dmitri Hamm Katwal Mr. John Terranova English 100 1 March 2016 The Economics of Education The essays by Jean Anyon and Jonathan Kozol explore the idea of education not being equal for everyone across the United States. For example, Jean Anyon discusses the idea of a "hidden curriculum". The hidden curriculum that her essay describes implies that the information taught and the way it is taught differs among schools of varying socioeconomic backgrounds. She and her team visited five different schools in New Jersey, with the schools being classified into working class, middle class, affluent-professional, and elite (Anyon 165-6). She then observed the classes and the way they are taught. This brought to light the differences between the way children …show more content…

I can compare this with the ideas of Anyon 's essay, specifically her experience with the "working class" schools. However, I can also liken my educational experience to Kozol 's essay, due to my schools lack of funds and poor conditions. The schools in Kozol 's essay dealt with lack of funding compared to other schools in New York. For example, Kozol states that the education of a third grade child, in nineteen ninety seven to nineteen ninety eight, in an inner city New York costs the New York Board of Education roughly eight thousand dollars per year. However, if you put that same third grader in a school in the white suburbs of New York, she would receive an education worth about twelve thousand dollars. Kozol adds to this by explaining that the prices on both sides have only risen (Kozol 208). A principal details the restraints on the school the lack of funding has brought, "the principal poured out his feelings to me in a room in which a plastic garbage bag had been attached somehow to cover part of the collapsing ceiling. 'This, ' he told me, pointing to the garbage bag, and then gesturing all around him at the other indications of decay and disrepair one sees in ghetto schools much like it elsewhere, …show more content…

We were not allowed to discuss lessons, and on math assignments, if we did the problem in a way that was different from the way we were taught, it was automatically marked wrong. We were taught in a similar fashion, frequently being told to shut up or whatever we had to say wasn 't important if the teacher didn 't want us talking. One shining example of the lack of respect our staff had for the students was an assembly that occurred in fourth grade. A student would not stop talking and the principal yelled at him to be quiet. The student stood up and threw a temper tantrum. The principal then grabbed him, put him in a headlock, and said, "Son, I swear to God, if you make my back go out, I 'll make you regret it!" These experiences lead me to believe teachers saw us as little more than an obstacle - something they had to overcome each day - instead of what we really were: young children, whose minds they needed to protect and mold into the future of this

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