Response to Jean Anyon's "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work"

Sebriana Ciarcia
September 23, 2015
English 1100_35
Professor Young

            In my educational experience I was fortunate enough to go to a magnet school, where students came in from all over the state to attend. There were students that came from middle, lower, and high-class areas of Connecticut. When I first read Jean Anyon’s Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, I thought that there would be no way I could connect to this, but as I looked back on my freshmen year of high school, on the first day of math class I can very clearly make a connection. 

            On the first day there were a lot of students in the class from all different towns. The teacher was still trying to figure out where we all were in math. And the levels were all over the place. I began to notice that the students that came from middle class towns, like me, kind of had an understanding of how to the problem, while the students from lower income towns didn’t understand at all, and those from higher income families understood the problem inside and out and came up with different ways to solve the problem. This a prime example of what Anyon was talking about in her essay. There is a huge difference in the way schools prepare you based on your social class.

            I think her positions holds merit today in schools all across the country. There are countless of times where we see on the news that schools with students who come from lower income families tend to do worse on standardized tests than students from middle or higher income families. I’ve even seen in my school where even though students came from all different social class, the students who were from high class areas, who had better educational experiences, would be expected to excel more and were even favored more by the teachers and encouraged to grow more, while the other students were expected to just follow the steps on the board and hopefully get the answers and if not, “they just need more practice”, like stated in Anyon’s essay. After reading her essay though and reflecting my own experience I begin to wonder if they need more practice or more of an opportunity.

Students' Right to Their Language

Sebriana Ciarcia
September 17th, 2015
English 1100_35
Prof. Young

Students and Their Language

            Students should not only have the right to use their own language in an academic setting, but be encouraged to do so. Without the right to their own language what do students to have a right to? It’s important for students to have this right because it will allow students to learn how to express their own language with an academic background in mind. In including factual information and having organization in one's writing is a key necessity to great writing, but students also need to learn how to separate their writing with the rest and they can do this with their own unique language. Expressing your language as a writer is an extremely important skill to have. It separates your writing form everyone else’s. It gives us style and originality, but most importantly a voice.  But you need to be able to express your language in a way others will be able to understand your writing. That is why it is crucial that students have the right to use their language in an academic setting. They will be able to learn that important concept in an academic setting with teachers to help guide them. With the right to their language students will find the purpose and importance of their own language. This will help build stronger writers and bring diversity and originality to writing in the learning environment. The key to success in all writing is have your own style, originality, and identity, that's why it is important for students to have the right to their now language in an academic setting. 

What Identity Means to Me?

Sebriana Ciarcia

English 1100

9/3/15

Prof. Young

What Identity Means to Me?

 To me identity is whom a person truly is inside, but is also something that is tried to be changed, but this ideal of the perfect identity. Your identity is how people perceive you, but most importantly how you perceive yourself. I think that identity is not only important to me, but also to everyone else. It's something people have been fighting for, for years. Times are different today and society is more open to your true identity. People used to have conform themselves to fit into this ideal perfect identity society had. Before, society thought the perfect identity was someone who was a certain skin color and those who weren’t the right color still had their identity, but it wasn’t the right one.  There was a time when people who felt different couldn't come out and say they felt more like one gender than the other. But, today we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to see people to show their true identity and live free. I believe we have been fighting for free identity for centuries and still fighting today. To me identity is who we truly are and I believe it’s something we still have to fight for today. Even with all the milestones we’ve made in the past there is still a lot ahead of us to make identity is who someone truly is, instead of what everyone else thinks identity. Maybe not to some people, but to me identity means the world to me. It’s something I never want to hide or stop fighting for because to me identity is me. I would never want me to change.