Is the United States truly a classless society where there is equal opportunity for all and where everyone has the same chance to succeed?

by alopes (student)

Janine Popper

December 3, 2010

English 100-ACSS

Dan Lowe

Assignment 5

Is the United States truly a classless society where there is equal opportunity for all and where everyone has the same chance to succeed? Several authors, including Jean Anyon, John Taylor Gatto and Gregory Mantsios, have argued that America does have a class problem and since there are poor and rich classes, people do not have the same opportunity to succeed. I believe that people are born with equal rights under the law but that does not mean that they will have the same opportunity to succeed. I will show how the above authors prove that the United States is a class society that does not give equal opportunity to everyone, particularly in education and the chance to succeed.

Gregory Mantsios wrote a book called Class in America: Myths and Realities. In it he portrays how the United States believes in four myths about the country that many believe in, but ultimately are unfounded. I will discuss two myths: (1) the myth that “the United States is fundamentally a classless society and such basic needs as …education are provided to all regardless of economic standing” and (2) that “everyone has an equal chance to succeed.” (306-307). Mantsios showed that “the contrast between rich and poor is sharp, and with nearly one-third of the American population living at one extreme or the other, it is difficult to argue that we live in a classless society.” (307-308) He cites statistics such as “sixty percent of the American population holds less than 6 percent of the nation’s wealth.” (308) He describes how a well-known economist, Paul Samuelson, explained this to his students. “Samuelson asked them to picture an income pyramid made of children’s blocks, with each layer of blocks representing $1000. If we were to construct Samuelson’s pyramid today, the peak of the pyramid would be much higher than the Eiffel Tower, yet almost all of us would be within six feet of the ground.” This means that a small minority of families earn most of the income while the rest of the income is shared by the majority of middle-income and low-income families. (309)

Mantsios further shows that children of families who are in the upper class are more likely to have a better education, which leads to more opportunities to earn more money and stay in the higher class. Regarding SAT scores, he shows that “‘the higher the student’s social status, the higher the probability that he or she will get higher grades.’” (315) In addition, “students from upper-class families were twice as likely to obtain training beyond high school and four times as likely to attain a post-graduate degree. (315) Mantsios says that “class standing and consequently life chances, are largely determined ...

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Another author, Jean Anyon, in her book Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, also argues that schools do not provide an equal education and equal opportunity to succeed to the lower classes. She describes the curricula of five schools in New Jersey. Each school was made up primarily of one of four different social classes. These schools are described as working-class, middle- class, affluent professional and executive elite schools. The results of her study suggest “that there is a ‘hidden curriculum’ in schoolwork that has profound implications for the theory –and consequence—of everyday activity in education.” (171) Anyon shows how the children of different social classes learn in their schools. Poor children in working-class schools receive an education that prepares them for unskilled jobs but wealthier children in affluent professional and executive elite schools will receive an education that prepares them for college and then for high-paying careers. Therefore, students are trained to have jobs that keep them in the same class as their parents.

A third author, John Taylor Gatto, an educator who wrote an essay called “Against School” says that “on paper, schools exist to help students realize their full potential, to equip them with the skills they’ll need to achieve success and contribute to society, or to foster the development of independence, critical thinking, and strong ethical values.” (148) Gatto’s point in this essay is that the real but covert purpose of school is to prepare people for an unrewarding life in the work force, rather than preparing them to think critically and develop their full potential.

Gatto uses Alexander Inglis’s work which describes the actual functions of school. He lists six functions of schools. They are: (1) the adjustive or adaptive function which is to make students reflexively obey authority; (2) the integrating function or the conformity function which is to make children as alike as possible; (3) the diagnostic and directive function which “is meant to determine each students proper social role;” (4) the differentiating function whose purpose is to sort children by role and educate them only as much as they need to perform that role; (5) the selective function whose purpose is to make sure that the smart people with smart genes breed with the same kind of people in order to improve the breeding stock; and (6) the propaedeutic function whose purpose is to give most students only basic knowledge but to “educate and elite group of caretakers.” (153) Gatto’s perspective is the same as that of Mantsios and Anyon. He also demonstrates that education for the different classes is different and unequal. The result of that is that people in the higher class stay in the higher class and people in the lower class stay in the lower class.

These three authors have proven that the United States is not a classless society that provides equal opportunity to all. In fact, there is a huge economic gap between the rich and the poor. Education is not the same for everybody. People do not have the same chance to succeed and people rarely move up or down from the social class they were born into.

Work Cited

Anyon, Jean. “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work.” Rereading America. 8th edition. Eds. Gary Columbo et. al. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin’s. 2010. 169-184.

Gatto, John. “Against School.” Rereading America. 8th edition. Eds. Gary Columbo et. al. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin’s. 2010. 148-155.

Mantsios, Gregory. “Class in America: Myths and Realities.” Rereading America. 8th edition. Eds. Gary Columbo et. al. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin’s. 2010. 304-317.

Popper——Assignment 5