Characteristics of Working-Class Schools vs. Affluent Professional Schools

» Submitted by dcoffee on Mon, 07/20/2009 - 04:18.

Objective: The objective of this exercise is to help parents begin to see that differences in schooling for different socio-economic brackets are structural, not individual.

Workshops are designed for 12 to 16 participants.
Divide participants into groups of 4.

Print the characteristics of Working-Class and Affluent Professional Schools in the cells below on 3X5 cards. Provide a set of cards for each group.

Participants sort the cards into three piles
1. Probably describe schools attended by children whose family income is less than $45,000 per year.
2. Probably describe schools attended by children whose family income is over $150,000 per year.
3. We can’t decide.

Parents, teachers, and students have no problem sorting statements. The few statements that might go into the “can’t decide” pile are usually placed there because the participants do not quite understand them. After a brief whole-group discussion, the “can’t decide” statements are readily sorted.

Follow up with discussion. Why is this so? Which school do we (send our children to, teach in, or attend)? Is this a just situation? What causes it? Who causes it? What can we do about it?

A list of characteristics of Working-Class, Middle-Class, Affluent Professional, and Executive Elite Schools are found in the attachment: Anyon 4 School Characteristics Summary.doc. I recommend confining the exercise to characteristics of Working-Class and Affluent Professional Schools although characteristics of all four schools are in the attachment.

Alternative Lesson: Supply a few characteristics such as those below, and ask students to make up their own cards with which to challenge other groups.

Work consists of copying teacher's notes from the board and writing answers to text questions.	In science students experiment"in their own way" to discover properties of aluminum, glass, and copper (which heats fastest, for example?). They discuss methods and ideas with other students.	Teachers almost never bring out connections between what students are learning and current events. Current events are almost never discussed.	When asked “Can you create knowledge?”only one student says you can make knowledge.
When asked “Can you create knowledge?” -Students say “Yes, by figuring stuff out and thinking up ideas and finding out what's wrong with them."	Knowledge is presented as isolated facts, skills. -Relationships to other facts, skills are not explained. -Relationship to students' lives is not explained	The “dominant theme” is Excellence, preparation for being the best, for top quality performance.	Teacher is careful of expressing her own opinions because parents are powerful.

Help

Submitted by dmhodson on Sat, 08/21/2010 - 04:25.

I guess it's because I'm new here, but how can I download the attachment you referenced in this post?

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