Exploratory Essay 2nd Draft

After reviewing the pieces we have read over the course of the semester thus far, three articles jumped out to me with one large connection. “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, “What is a 21^st Century Liberal Education”, and “Montessori Education – American Montessori Society” all focus on students and how they are taught/ how they learn. Two of the articles discuss certain styles of educating students while the third focuses on the social class structure and how that effects the differentiation of education.

The first thread that I noticed was that the environments in which students learns and develop. The author of “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of work”, Jean Anyon writes about the differences in the classes of schools and how they operate and how they go about teaching the students. Anyon speaks of the elite class, saying that they are designed to “develop one’s analytical intellectual powers.” (Jean Anyon, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work) This is a key concept that the Montessori education system has nearly mastered. “It is a view of the child as one who is naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a supportive, thoughtfully prepared learning environment.” (American Montessori Society AMS, Montessori Educaiton) This quote sums up the basis of the Montessori Education system. The environment these students are fostered in is designed to harbor creative freedom as well as the ability to self-teach and grow as an individual. They allow the students to have a “learning triangle” made up of the student, teacher, and learning environment.  “.. younger children learn from older children; older children reinforce their learning by teaching concepts they have already mastered.”(AMS, Montessori Education) When Montessori schools allows students to teach they are empowering the students, thus allowing for their intellectual potential to reach its peak. When an individual can teacher another a piece of information it not only allows for the person receiving the information a new insight on a topic, but also allows the person who taught the material to further mature the knowledge in their mind. Now of course, the system isn’t perfect. In order for a student to be successful at a Montessori school they need to be driven, capable of critical thinking, and the ability to lead others. Not all students in these schools have these imperative qualities, nor can they be taught through years of schooling; they must be born with them. The Montessori Education system is providing students with the environment to reach their full potential.

 For those students that don’t have an option or qualifications to go to a Montessori school, they are still able to find environments that nurture their potential and teach the valuable qualities that ensure a successful future. I personally have always gone to a liberal education school based in an elite class ecosystem. I was fortunate enough to receive a Montessori, Liberal Education mix. I loved having a general knowledge of the world but a more intimate relationship with the subjects that sparked my interest developed my yearning for knowledge.

After reading about articles and realizing that the learning environment is one of the most crucial elements to a student’s success, I am left wondering, why haven’t all schools adopted a hybrid of Montessori and Liberal Education models? Why is it that only select student’s get to have a Montessori education, and that a vast majority of students must wait until college to receive a full liberal education system? It seems pointless to have a public education system that doesn’t allow each and every student to reach the pinnacle of their intellectual abilities. If the public education system was able to teach a full liberal education to every student then every student would need college and then a college degree would hold the same weight as it did 20 years ago. A degree wouldn’t be a necessity for an entry level position any more. Had education today be a mixed system then Anyon’s comment of “...schools in wealthy communities are better than those in poor communities.” (Anyon, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work) then class distinction would ultimately not matter.

The next theme, which stood out more than any other, was that of being socially responsible. In each article, they talk about social responsibility regarding the student. From a young age, every student in every school, across every social class, has a preconceived notion of what they are going to amount to in their lives.  “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” goes in depth into what each child is expected to achieve based on what socioeconomic group in which they are a part of. Anyon made a very clear distinction of how each “wider word” (What is a 21^st Century Liberal Education, Association of America Colleges and university, AACU) subject was taught in each social class. A child that is raised in a working class family is only taught simple punctuation and rarely can make educational decisions, due to the fact the teacher makes them all for the students, because they are not looked at as being able to overcome the social stigma placed on them and better themselves for a successful future. Whereas the Affluent Professional Schools and the Elite Schools, are automatically pushed to be the best they can be. According to the article “What is a 21^st Century Liberal Education?” written by the AACU, liberal education is “...an approach to learning that empowers individuals and prepare them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change.” Liberal Educations model are typically used in the Affluent Professional and Elite classes as well as institutions for higher learning. This model of education is where “…students develop a sense of social responsibility.” (What is a 21^st Century Liberal Education, AACU) They are taught to inquire, to ask questions, and politely dismiss a classmate’s query if it is deemed incorrect, not that there is one concrete answer to only be found in a textbook. The teacher is merely there to steer their thinking and inquiries in the right direction. Anyon, regarding Affluent Professional Schools, states that “The students are continually asked to express and apply ideas and concepts.”(Anyon, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work) This shows that students, depending on what class they are in, either are allowed to have their own voice, or have to merely follow the decisions made by the teacher.

 This country was founded on freedom of speech and freedom of expression, yet schools are the one place where those rights are suppressed and where those that express themselves are punished. Why is that? Why is it okay to tell a child they are wrong for what they say or do, and to punish them for wanting to go about learning a different way? I now see why having a liberal education is limited to college students and very few affluent and elite class schools. College students are deemed more mature and capable of holding intellectual conversations, whereas secondary education students, for the most part, aren’t deemed eligible. Every student is capable of achieving higher intellectual learning then their class reckons them able to. That is why those students go off to college; to increase their knowledge base. Why not just allow them to take more rigorous courses at a younger age? 

A big connection that I was able to see was that of the teacher. The teachers in each class system fit to their school. Anyon shares the thought of a Working- Class teacher; she says “Simple punctuation is all they’ll ever use.” She is already capping the knowledge taught to the children based on assumptions that they won’t amount to anything more than what their parents already are. Anyon makes a good point regarding the teachers and how they just state facts and steps without any reasoning of thought provoking questions, “Nor was there any attempt to relate the steps to an actual or possible thought process of the children.” (Anyon, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work) Whereas in the Affluent Professional School when they learn about hieroglyphics, they write letters to a child in another class in cuneiform to be able to apply the knowledge they just learned to the real world and are forced to think about the information in new ways. This method comes from the Montessori education system where the student, “…begins the application of his knowledge to real-world experiences.” (AMS, Montessori Education) Teachers in the Elite class take teaching to a whole new level. When the Working Class teacher went about teaching the students about two-digit division the teacher gave them the steps and made them write them down. When her students were confused she simply said, “…It’s the same steps over and over again.” (Anyon, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work)  When the Elite class was taught about two-digit division they were taught it as “a decision-making process” (Anyon, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of work) where the teacher would ask questions to a specific student, in which she called by his first name. Having the students think about the “how” instead of the “what” allows for advancement in cognitive development at an increased rate.  

After analyzing the three articles I am left with a few questions. If they, the students, aren’t nurtured to reach their fullest potential then why are we wasting millions of dollars on a sub-par education system and teachers that place caps on a student’s intellectual level based on their social class? Who should be held responsible for the lack of cognitive development of these students?   And why does this country put a label on a student before they are even given the chance to prove they are different? These questions are of great interest to me and I fail to understand how these have not been raised by others in society that has the ability to change the system.