Anyon "Hidden Curriculum"

Anyon argues that public schools have a "hidden curriculum" that teaches students about class structures and how they are related to them in an implicit manner. The argument is that public schools maintain and reproduce systems of class that come from understanding of one's identity gained from relationships to systems and power structures in society, reflections of oneself through other people and an individual notion of importance and production that creates a view of one's own position in society and where they fall in a class hierarchy. Children learn from a young age things like when and how to (or not to) speak, about the importance of their opinions and beliefs, their dreams and aspirations and other values that let them know how significant they are in society. Anyon argues that "social power, knowledge, and skills are withheld from working class," which relates to Mike Rose's argument that when the working class is provided with tools, knowledge and skills, those skills are undervalued by society. In this way, both of these authors are arguing a similar point. The power of the working class is invisible, even though its numbers and ability to resist is actually stupendous and the people carry many skills and a level of productivity and hard labor for low wages.

Anyon also makes the point, agreeing with Bourdeiu's, that sometimes forms of capital can yield other types of capital. For example, capital can be in the form of "cognitive, linguistic, or scientific skillful application of symbolic capital" that "may yield social and cultural power, and perhaps physical capital as well." What Anyon means by this, I believe, is that skills produced in the working class can sometimes under specific circumstances lead to physical capital such as monetary or physical property valuables. However, due to the reproduction of class created by the implicit hidden curriculum, few are able to have access to the kind of self-esteem and self-importance that may lead to the application of such skills that may warrant upward mobility. The working class is often taught implicitly that they are not valued by society, their skills are physical more so than mental or intellectual and therefore warrant lower pay, college degrees are unnecessary, and other belief systems that cause the working class to perpetuate the production of working class individuals.