Caste in Education.

I would like to compare the five types of American public elementary schools, de scribed by Jean Anyon in Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum , with the Dutch school I went to for my primary and secondary education. Jean Anyon describes four ty pes of public schools in the United States, where children are taught according to their parent s financial and social standing. In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Education makes money available to each student for their primary and secondary education, no matter what school they attend. This gives children the ability t o go to a school that matches their abilities best. This also gives them the opp ortunity to rise beyond the social standing of their parents. Jean Anyon gives us a description of four schools, intended for four different s ocial classes: working class, middle class, affluent class and executive class. In the working class school, there is no trust. The teacher is the decision make r and students are expected to follow and copy. In the middle class school, stud ents are expected to follow directions, but they are given choices. In the afflu ent professional school, children are asked for their ideas and their individual ism is valued. In the Executive Elite school, students are encouraged to come up with different perspectives and the class is led in a way that reasoning and an alytical skills are developed. The public schools are classified the way they ar e because of the locality of the school. If the school is located in a rich area , then the school will offer an education that is geared to develop adults that will later function in these higher social circles. Children of lower social st anding do not have access to these schools, because they can t afford housing in the neighborhoods where education is of higher standards. They therefore live in an area where housing is less expensive and will be placed in a school of lower so cial standing, where they will be educated to follow and not go beyond their soc ial standing. In the Netherlands there are two types of schools: public schools and special sc hools (religious schools and particular educational philosophy schools). Both ty pes of schools are eligible to receive equal funding from the government and are therefore accessible to all social classes. I went to a government funded Jewis h Montessori school. My school had children of different social backgrounds; I c an remember children from all four groups that Jean Anyon describes in her artic le. Montessori schools are based on the philosophy that the teacher is a guide to he lp the student in their self directed development. This philosophy very much c ompares to the way the children are taught in the executive elite school. I reme mber feeling responsible for the work I had to do in school. Like the children i n the elite school, I sometimes did not go to the bathroom till lunch break beca use I had work to finish. Montessori schools are made so that children are give n enough individual attention so that each child can develop to their fullest po tential. The school I went to and the primary and secondary education in the Netherlands differs from the education offered in the United States in the sense that educat ion is not geared towards the social group you belong to. In the Netherlands, c hildren from different social groups are mixed and they are given opportunity to attend the same kinds of education. They therefore have the chance to climb up the social ladder.