Monday, March 23, 2009
For your first response, please comment on this posting by describing your opinion on social class. This answer can be related to the book you have started reading, previous experiences, classes you have taken, etc. Also, if you want to respond to other comments from your classmates that would be great!
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Well for me social class is a tricky issue. I have sympathy for ‘poor’ people but is it fair to take away money from others to help them? One of my favorite quotes I recently heard from Shawn Hannity was “the government cannot give anything to anyone that it has not taken from someone else.” I have favored republican policy for most domestic affairs, but I don’t know how long that will last once I become a teacher and have to vote democratic for job safety. (pretty selfish of me) bottom line social class separates people. But what is the best way to even the playing field? I imagine that is what we will be discussing in class.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the math side of me, but before I give an opinion on something I like to have a formal definition. So, and for anyone else interested, farahsouth.cgu.edu defines social class as "a category of people who have generally similar educational histories, job opportunities, and social standing and who are conscious of their membership in a social group that is ranked in relation to others and is replicated over generations." I found many definitions, but I liked this one the best.
ReplyDeleteAs far as my opinion on the subject, I think it's almost unavoidable to put labels on people no matter what the reason for doing so. Truly, I don't agree with negative connotations surrounding groups of people who do not deserve it. Honestly, I haven't learned much about social class other than my years in high school, and that was very little, so I am looking forward to your unit.
In response to Jeff's post...
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, EDUCATION, in theory, is one great situation in which we have the opportunity to "even the playing field," at least within any given school or district. Students may have a vast range of socio-economic statuses and may live their lives completely different based on this, however once they get to the classroom, they're all on the same page as their other classmates. They get the same lessons, have access to the same materials (within the school building, at least), have the same resources and help, and should all be treated the equally.
The challenges, then, are:
a) getting students to realize they're equal within the school building. If they think they are "not worth as much" as the student next to them, it may become almost a self-fulfilling prophecy and this student may not realize or take advantage of all that is available to them within their education.
b) leveling the playing field across different schools, districts, and areas. How do we make sure an under-funded inner city school provides the same education and resources as a wealthy suburban school?
I think if we can get all students to get equal educations regardless of their socio-economic statuses, they eventually will be able to apply that to their futures as well... with jobs, housing, success, etc!
Maybe this is very idealistic of me, but I think our educational systems are just the best place for us to start in resolving this sort of problem!
Wow, Amanda. That is a really well thought out and phrased answer. I totally agree that in order for us to encourage students to succeed they all must start on an equal footing. Saying that everyone is equal in a school is great, but how might we be able to accomplish that?
ReplyDeleteOne problem that has always plagued me has been what about the previous knowledge that students bring into the classroom. As a teacher, I think this is going to be the biggest challenge because you can't teach everything, but you have to make sure that all students understand the basics of what you are trying to teach before you teach it.
Social class is tricky, but we have to deal with it. Like it or not, social class is so apparent in literature that we have to make sure that students are able to recognize it and speak to it.
The first image that comes to my mind when I hear the term "social class" is of the caste system in India. I knew some folks that went on a trip to India to work in a hospitable. They explained to me the caste system in place there, which has technically been abolished by the government, but which still runs deep in the culture. Some of the people that came to the hospitable for attention were of the "Untouchable" class, meaning they had truly never been talked to or touched by another human. Naturally, receiving personal health care was an impacting experience for such people who had always been discriminated against and neglected.
ReplyDeleteComparing this story to life in America, I think that perhaps we don't have such extreme separation and discrimination of people groups. However, it reveals to me that this is something that humans do, separate ourselves in power and pride. Even if the stratification we experience is a result of a "free" and "democratic" capitalist nation, we as humans still develop biases toward other peoples and cultures in regard to social class. I think it's important to consider what those biases and prejudices are.
Social class has been something that we have been discussing frequently in my ES 395 class this semester. Many of the topics that we have already discussed in this unit have been covered in depth in this class. If anyone wants to further explore the influences of social class and de facto segregation on the public school system should check out the book, "The Shame of the Nation." This book is one person's practical research and case studies on the influences of the socio-economic status of an area on the school system, and the injustices caused by factors such as budgeting, curriculum, class size, ect... on inner city schools. This book was an eye opener for me about the inequalities found between these schools and the schools that I had the priveledge to attend, and ideas as to how we as educators and citizens can change this vicious cycle.
ReplyDeleteSorry I'm bit late entering our discussion, but I'll do my best to add something without rehashing the previous comments too much.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of inner-city schools vs. those found in neighborhoods with a generally "higher" socio-economic class, I feel that the issue of underfunding as a determining factor for success has been grossly misrepresented. While money can play a key role in the resources students have access to, more often than not, the issue of fund mismanagement by self-serving bureaucrats has been far more detrimental to the education system in our country.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was recently quoted in the Washington Post saying that the D.C. school district had "more money than god."
When you crunch the numbers, this actually equates to roughly $25,000 per pupil on the low end. D.C. also has a voucher program (which public school officials have vehemently rallied against) which pays out less than $6,000 per pupil. The children who have been fortunate enough to take part in the program have either matched or exceeded their public school peers in every measurable academic category. The "$25,000" number becomes even more shocking when you consider it is not only 4 times greater than voucher spending per-pupil, but also equal to the cost of one voucher PLUS the average income of a voucher recipients family.
When I hear the term "social class" a picture of all different people come to mind. Over the course of the semester we have already read over bits and pieces of different examples of social classes and think that it is a strong topic that should be covered in all classrooms. I think that some students that come from rural area schools may not always know what kind of social classes are evident in the world. It is important to show our students and let them experience the different places around us so that we are not stuck in our own little bubble of experiences. A great example is the project we had to do on going to basically the "bad" parts of Kalamazoo vs. the "good" parts. Maybe taking your class on a field trip with supervision could be enlightening!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first thought about social class, the first thing that came to mind was money. A person's education and their job and their home and car and clothes and EVERYTHING that comes from or is a result of money determines where you rank on the totem pole of social class. After doing the activity where I first decided someone's social class on how much money they were worth, it made me realize that's not how I thought at all. How a person acts is just as if not more important as how much money they possess. Steve-O and Jeff Foxworthy may be excessively wealthy, but they don't act like it. Not that getting your own face tattooed on your back or going hunting and wearing cowboy boots makes you any less high class, but that's not the initial impression I had and they just aren't what I think of when I think of high social class.
ReplyDeleteSorry I am late in posting this. For some reason with this particular post, it hasn't posted, but I will try again.
ReplyDeleteSocial class is a hard subject for me to talk about just because I feel I'm not as informed as I should be, and I like to know what I am talking about before I say anything. When I think of social class, like Shannon, the first thing that comes to mind is money. I know when I was in elementry school and secondary school status was based upon on how much money your parents made. If you didn't have the right clothes, you were considered poor. If you didn't have the right friends, that knocked you down in class.
So, social class is based on different things I think. It can be based on money, education, popularity and even personality. I think it's interesting how people judge social class by how a person acts or even speaks.
I think that social class is something that needs to be talked about. It may be uncomfortable, but it is something that isn't going to go away. I know in my case, I feel uncomfortable talking about it because I feel I don't know too much about it, but I am interested in learning more. This unit has been well put together and it has made me think about a lot of things such as how to approach teaching social class in a classroom. I do think it's important for people to be aware of the world around them.