Describe Your Social Class
Essay On Social Class Theory Of Karl Marx
Social Classes And Class System Essay
Social Class And The Middle Class Essay
Social Class And Its Impact On Society Essay
Identity, Social Class, And Culture Essay
Social Class in Classroom
Essay about Social Class
Race vs. Social Class Essay
The Importance Of Social Class In Society
Social Class And Social Classes
Social Class Discrimination
Social Class and Quality of Education Essay
Social Class in the United States Essay
Social Class Research Paper
Essay on Social Class in the Classroom
Social Class And Gender Essay
Social Classes
1. Describe Your Social Class
Knowing what social class on is in at a young age is very important because it can either help or
hinder one's future. Social class has many different categories one can fit in. I personally put
myself in the working middle class for a few different reasons like my mother's education level, the
different potions she has held in different over the years, and the schooling that she has put me
through over the years. Personally, I put myself in the middle working class because of the places
my mother got her education. The high school my mother went to was not the best in the state of
Illinois or even in the area but she made do with what she had. Also, my, mother had my brother in
high school at the tender age of sixteen. Although my mother had my brother in high school it did
not stop her from getting her high school diploma....show more content...
Her first job out of the community college was a bank teller. She loved that job she made enough
money to move out of her parents' and get a place her own apartment. The bank teller job gave
her enough money to put my brother in a daycare and keep food on the table but not enough to go
out of town or go on adventures. Therefore, know that she wanted to do more my mother worked
as hard as she could to move up in the rankings. She moved all the way up to assistant manager so
she made more money. So she was able to go on trips with the family and also she was able to buy
her own car all by herself. By this time, she had me and she still was comfortable with the money
until her and my father got a divorce. So she started to change he spending habits. Instead of
going out to eat with her friends; so asked them to do potlucks to where ever everyone brings one
article of food to make a dinner. So she worked that job for a long time till one of her friends
recently told her that the company had an open
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2. Essay On Social Class Theory Of Karl Marx
The topic of the report was to research on the class differentiation theory of Karl Marx. The theory
is defined and examined, the method of research used is questionnaires. The questionnaires are
prepared and distributed in Institute of Business Management. The questionnaire's results are shared
in the report below, the findings gave a clear idea of the theory. The idea ofsocial class differences
varies from person to person. The results will be discussed in the latter part of the report.
INTRODUCTION
Karl Marx was one of the first social scientists to focus mainly on social class. His main focus on
social class was that one's social class dictated one's social life.
Basically, Marx meant that if one is in the upper class, life was one of leisure and abundance, while
those in the lower class lived lives of hardship and poverty.
According to Marx, there was one social element that would determine where one fit in the social
class hierarchy: that of who controls the means of production, meaning who owned the resources
necessary to produce what people needed to survive.
The wealthy would be the individuals who owned the land and factories. The wealthy would then
control all elements of society – including the livelihoods of the lower, working class. The lower,
working class would work for...show more content...
The response was by both students from education background from A–levels and intermediate. 67
% of the respondents considered it a serious issue in the community considering it as the gap getting
larger between the upper and lower class. 77 % of confessed about making friends after knowing the
social class. The recommendation was that it would end until the change of the ages and a huge
movement conducted by the students who are most affected by this
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3. Social Classes And Class System Essay
In the United states, social classes is a controversial issue in terms of defining the actual nature of
the classes themselves. Many individuals have categorized the society into three elementary groups
that is the "poor", "middle class" and the "rich". Additionally, a more complex system of social
classes is derived from the three elementary classes. In this regard, a four–class system includes "the
capitalist/upper class", "the middle class", "the working class" and "the lower class" (Thompson,
2005). Moreover, sociologists have expanded the for–class system into a six class system includes
"the capitalist or upper class", "the upper–middle class", "the middle class", "the working class", "the
lower–working class" and "the lower class".
The social classes are based on numerical measures of income and wealth. However, other social
factors such as level of education and individual social status are considered. Due to differentiation
of incomes, wealth and social status, a society is stratified at a continuous rate with no clear class
boundaries. As a result, individuals of one class may have different wealth accumulation or
occupations (Beeghley, 2004). In addition, individuals having similar occupation positions may also
have different lifestyles and end up forming a social class.
Social classes are a description of individual's position within the society concerning so leadership,
prestige, influence, or compensation. Income levels of households or individuals play a
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4. Social Class And The Middle Class Essay
Social class can be defined as a social construct which is used to describe a group of people with
similar levels of wealth, influence and status. They tend to have dramatically different values and
mannerisms to others groups, for example, the working–class are seen as uneducated and unskilled
workers, whereas the middle–class are seen as highly educated people with high incomes (Harcourt,
2016). Despite there being other social class groups, including, the upper–class, this essay will
explore the portrayal of the working–class, lower–class, also known as the 'underclass', and the
middle–class in reality television, using the example of Wife Swap.
The working class and the lower class groups have been increasingly visible on British television
screens in recent years, mainly because the increasingly popular genre of reality television features
them heavily (Morley, 2009). Debates have sparked on whether the use of ordinary people on such
programmes is democratising or exploitative. It could be argued that because the working–class were
not on such programmes, audiences and society therefore had no access to them and their lifestyles.
However, the great exposure of working–classes on reality television programmes now provides
access to them and allows people to observe and judge how they behave and how they live.
It is not a recent discovery that disadvantaged individuals, families and communities are portrayed in
negative lights by the media (Crossley and Slater, 2014),
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5. Social Class And Its Impact On Society Essay
Social class has been always been in our society since its establishment. Back then, white,
landowning men had the highest status amongst society with women and other races being lower
in the societal ladder Times have changed since then, but social class is still a major factor to
people's success. Social class is defined as a label that categorizes individuals based on their
economic status, wealth, and power. Social class does not matter, but should not be ignored It's
prominent in our society so I think as young adults we need to be aware of it. If we "teach them
how to deal with it in a positive manner and how to prevent it, then little by little we can see less of
the discrimination. Our differences shouldn't create conflict between people and cause problems".
Our differences should come together and be celebrated. It should be brought to our attention that
they may be more disadvantaged than other people and that all their home lives are unique and
different from each other. While keeping this concept in mind, teachers and faculty members should
not let social class control their action towards the students and be prejudiced. Teachers should not
see social class as a problem or an excuse as to why the student is not learning. Individuals want to
learn and can learn; social class should not be the explanation as to why the teacher will not help the
student reach their goals. When students grow intellectually and become educated, they will acquire
more opportunities to
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6. Identity, Social Class, And Culture Essay
Each individual has multiple identity. Through all aspects of life, you identify objects and
categorize them. Similarly, people are categorized as well. By their; gender, religion, social class,
and culture. At birth you're immediately identified or categorized by; gender and race. As you grow
up, your parents religion and social class are imposed on you. But identity is not a thing to be had,
but an experience of the relationship between the different experiences and feelings that make up
identity over time. Each individual perceives the world through their own senses. How each
individual; process, understand and respond to experiences and feelings, differs greatly. However,
each individual's senses are inured by their culture and communities. This means although, each
individual is capable of changing their identity, through experience and feelings. How they perceive
the world, is through what they unconsciously learned from their culture and communities. As a
result, affects how they identify themselves and other individuals and communities. The idea that
each individual, has multiple ever changing identities in life. As a result of experience and feelings.
An individual develops particular identity in relation to other people and places. What happens when
an individual's identity conflicts with a different identity of the individual? The individual becomes
dissociated from themselves. These ideas are expressed in Citizen: An American Lyric by, Claudia
Rankine. When
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7. Social Class in Classroom
ocial class has a large effect on the lifestyles of all Americans. But what does it really mean to be a
part of the lower, middle or upper class? These divisions of social class are defined by aspects
such as family income and lifestyle; however, education plays a large role in determining ones
social class. That does not mean that it will determine success in ones life but to interpret, many
people with a further education usually have a higher income as well. Those of the upper class have
higher standards for education and career aspirations in contrast to those of the lower and middle
class. Besides the differentiation of aspirations of the individuals of each social class, it is also used
to determine who will go to college, depending...show more content...
A common reason found amongst most lower class students is the lack of confidence they all carry.
According to James Rhem of NTLF, from the article "Social Class and Student Learning":
"Students from working–class backgrounds often lack confidence. They may have as much
intelligence as students who come from wealth, but they see the world differently. They may, in
fact, be more likely to lack academic skills and sophistication. They have less practice playing with
ideas, conceptualizing and sometimes less practice in reading and writing. But even when they don't
lack skills, they often remain uncertain of themselves, stay quiet in class, pick low–risk courses, and
settle on very practical majors without allowing themselves to dream of more" (2).
In other words, "these students are less able to work the system" (Warren, Class in the Classroom
1) and this means that they have more trouble finding out what to do, in terms of helping
themselves. They are less exposed to 'the college world" since there is no one these students can
relate to–many other students from other socioeconomic status have some idea of what to do in
college, because others who have attended college, such as siblings and parents, give proper
advisement to these students, when help is needed–––as a result of "being able to work the system".
Middle class students (in
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8. Essay about Social Class
SOCIAL CLASS
Social class refers to the system of stratification of the different groups of people in a society.
These different forms of classification are, in most instances, based on gender ethnicity and age.
Social class makes everyone's lives extremely different. For example: How long one can expect to
live. In a wide range of ways, from success, to one's health class, social class influences people's
lives (Grusky,2003).
Among the life chances affected as result of social class involve factors such as: How long people
live (life expectancy), how healthy people are, how much and what they eat, the kind of housing
they live in, the level of education they reach and the qualifications they achieve, how likely they are
to be unemployed...show more content...
The upper middle class consists of managers and professionals, while the lower middle class is
made up of clerks, office workers, telephone sales and shop workers. These jobs are usually not
very well paying and do not require very high qualifications. The petty bourgeoisie on the other hand
are small business owners. This group may consist of people who may own a workshop or shop and
may be employing a small number of people.
The Working Class
This class, like the middle class, consists of sub–groups of people. These include the skilled, the
semi–skilled and unskilled workers. Social mobility has, however, affected the number of people
in this class. Many people born in this class have been able to rise to the middle class, and as a
result, there exists a case of embourgeoisement.
According to the Marxist view, this is the class of people who are detrimental to the fate of the
entire class system. He stated that these people were supposed to unite and overthrow capitalism.
However, this is not what has occurred.
The Underclass
This is the lowest class in the social class stratification. While the majority of the working class now
live reasonably healthy and prosperous lives, a low minority do not. These people cannot work.
They include the long–term unemployed and the disabled and chronically ill. They are in effect, shut
out of much of what most people can attain. This group of
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9. Race vs. Social Class Essay
Race vs. Social Class
THESIS: Race differences in identity and social position were, and are, more important than class
differences in American society.
"Events in the nineteenth century made it abundantly and irrefutably clear that race as a concept sui
generis superseded social class as the dominant mechanism of social division and stratification in
North America." (Smedley 219) For many decades people have been using race as a way to
classify humans into different social categories. Lower, Middle, and Upper classes were created to
divide humans into appropriate categories using their individual lifestyles, financial income,
residence, and occupation. People decided to ignore this classifying system and classify one another,
...show more content...
These conditions in turn lead to the way individuals perform at work. It also affects their views of
each other as well as those considered to be "above" or "below" them. So, racial discrimination
happens at the work level, as well as, the dividing of social classes.
Racial discrimination dominated over social classes creating an unfair way to divide people. "In all
areas of life, Americans were persuaded that the major races – black, Indian, Asian, and white –
could not and should not live or work together and certainly not as equals." (Smedley 221) All other
races were homogenized, regardless of education, skills, language, religion, income, or place of
origin, into one simple category. Class separation was temporary and situational, as so many
Americans were quick to uncover. White Americans believed that anyone who succeeded in
business, politics, entertainment, or their professions automatically improved their class status and
eliminated the barriers to upper class institutions. Class barriers can be surpassed; race barriers can
not.
The social class has two major approaches to the study in the scholarly literature. The first one is
ethnographic and descriptive, and the other is Marxism, which offers a range of perspectives.
Smedley describes Marxism as identifying social classes as groups standing in different relationships
to the "mode of production" and
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10. The Importance Of Social Class In Society
Society has developed the concept of social classes to classify and categorize people based on
many attributes such as their income, reputation and even their appearance. At first, the many ways
that society is divided up by can impact the way one's status quo is formed by in relation to society.
Social classes can determine your whole life, but only if you let them rule the decisions that you are
destined to make in life. This can lead to the prevalent interactions that occur between people of
different statuses in which the individuals that are involved gain a greater comprehension of the
society that they live in. Such scenarios take place in the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Another book filled with social classes and social norms is To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper
Lee. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is also a superb example. The existence of social
classes can alter and affect many areas in your life, such as one's wealth, physical aspects, and even
stature.
As mentioned briefly, social classes have the power to change and alter your future based on the
extent that their influence has over you. For example, the decision to abide by the norms of
social classes can affect whom you would like to wed and for what purpose. In this day and age,
marriage occurs on the basis of love. But back in the 1800's, the only purpose that marriage served
was to have one rise up in the ladder of social classes and for them to gain access to their spouse's
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11. Myrtle Wilson, a relatively minor character, belongs to the lower classes, expresses a desire to
upward social mobility, but is largely prevented from doing so due to her gender. She uses love to
acquire wealth and has an extramarital affair with Tom. She is not happy with her lower social
status and her husband George Wilson, a representative of the lower classes and a simple man
with no grand ambitions, states in the novel: "The only crazy I was was when I married him. I
knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in and never
even told me about it," (Fitzgerald 28). Myrtle allows us to look at her accumulation of things, such
as the down–town apartment which was "... crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture
entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continuously over scenes of ladies
swinging in the gardens of Versailles" (Lindberg 16; Fitzgerald 35).Social class is a key factor for
Gatsby in pursuit of Daisy's love. He understands, however, that as "a penniless young man
without a past" (Fitzgerald 118) he will not be able to marry Daisy. As Walter Michaels argues,
''The real problem is that he is 'without a past' and to get Daisy he must get a past. Thus Jimmy
Gatz's efforts to improve himself, which begins in the Franklin–like scheduling of his present
intended to produce the perfected Gatsby of his future ('study electricity, etc.'), must themselves be
transformed into efforts to
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12. Social Class And Social Classes
Social classes play a vital role in dynamic of families. The definition of social class is ambiguous
and has no clearly outlined definition. However it is believed to be a combination of different
aspects such as one's life chances or resources, one's status group, or those who share similar
lifestyles and one's education level make up an individuals social class. Therefore, in an ideal set up
there would 4 social cases the upper, middle, working, and poor classes (Judge 2015) and these are
the 4 that I will be using to distinguish the difference in how parents raise their children across social
classes. One main influence that causes a polarization of social classes are parents economic
resources and education level, thus influencing the jobs parents have and the availability they may
have to invest in their child's life. However the key characteristics that influence the ways parent
raise their children are how they organize their child's daily life, the use of language around their
children, and through social interactions (Lareau 202). However the two main approaches across
social class parents take in raising their child are natural growth and concerted cultivation. Concerted
cultivation approach to parenting is when parents seek to actively enhance their children's talents, and
opinions (Cherlin 2013). Parents are generally college educated and have jobs that allow for
financial stability within the family. Typically this parenting style pertains to upper and
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13. Social Class Discrimination
Social Class Discrimination
Social class discrimination is a negative attitude towards people based on their social or economic
class. It is both discriminatory and unfair to people from particular classes and beneficial to the
upper class. Social class discrimination has tremendous negative effects on the discriminated classes.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of every individual to take some actions to fix this problem.
The first step to bringing social class discrimination to a standstill is by first ensuring one's beliefs do
not label or rub others the wrong way. Therefore, a person should toil to be considerate of others by
treating them with respect. Declining to share discriminatory comments masqueraded as humor
promotes...show more content...
To use tone of voice and actions makes it a reality. This can be done by raising awareness about the
revolting side of discrimination. Educating and informing others to object to discrimination can be
done individually or by joining websites and organizations which battle against discrimination. The
donation of time, skills and financial support helps gets to more people with life changing prospects.
When employing, there are laws on equality that ought to be followed by employers. Teaching
employees about social class discrimination is another influential way to eradicate discrimination.
People from diverse backgrounds must have a say, equivalently. Barbara Ehrenreich in "Serving in
Florida" vividly describes her experiences of living in an expensive city as a low–wage worker. In
fear of losing their jobs, they opted to survive day to day working in poor conditions (Ehrenreich,
2010). If you run a business or hold a managerial position, one can curb discrimination by attempting
to sympathize with the employees.
During elections, a person can discourage discrimination by voting for the qualified persons in spite
of their social classes. Also, one ought to vote for public authorities who are against social class
discrimination. A good leader is committed eradication of all obstacles that pardon discriminatory
conducts in others. If voted for, an individual should implement policies that ban discrimination. An
office
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14. Social Class and Quality of Education Essay
One of the concerns regarding social justice in education is that there are marginalised groups within
society do not having equal access to the learning and life opportunities that they deserve. The
concept of social justice stresses that every individual within society is entitled to have equal rights
and opportunities. This means that an individual from a lower class background deserves the same
opportunities as a person from a wealthier background. It is about becoming aware and recognising
that there are certain situations where the application of the same rules to unequal groups can
sometimes lead to imbalanced results. It is therefore crucial that the government create a curriculum
that can empower every student regardless of their...show more content...
(quoted in Vic Kelly 1983: 10; see also, Kelly 1999). We can view the curriculum as a process by
which the knowledge and content is transmitted or 'delivered' to students by methods devised by
the government (Blenkin et al 1992: 23). A student can also be seen as a 'product' within the
curriculum as it has been suggested that the knowledge the government wish us to learn are seen to
benefit or attempt to achieve desired goals such as creating a skilled workforce for long term
economic benefit. Schools also have a hidden curriculum in which values and norms of behaviour
are transmitted. For example, wearing a school uniform and keeping to a set timetable can all be
seen as activities that encourage particular standards of behaviour which could be viewed as
producing disciplined future workers. Therefore the hidden curriculum implies that pupils not only
learn formal subjects such as English or physics but also receive hidden messages about their class,
ethnicity and gender from their experience of schooling. Through the choice of teaching strategies
and characteristics chosen to be employed by educational institutions it indirectly conveys to
students the norms, values and expectations. This is what we refer to as the hidden curriculum. As
we will later explore there are many that argue the hidden curriculum and processes within schools
help to produce inequalities between children of different social classes. Whitty and Young (1976)
view the
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15. Social class distinction remains a common theme throughout Shakespeare's plays. Shakespearean era
society possessed a structured hierarchy of social class, based largely on wealth and nobility. This
system influenced social interactions among the population and often guided marriage arrangements.
Shakespeare's commentary on social class, in his comedy Twelfth Night, exposes the divide
humorously, by displaying ironic interactions between varying social classes. Twelfth Night places a
variety of characters from different social classes in close quarters, causing inevitable conflict among
classes.
An early interaction between the wealthy noble Olivia and her hired fool mocks the hierarchal
stereotypes and provides an example of Shakespeare's ironic commentary on the social class
distinction. In this scene, Olivia, mourning her brother's death, is angry with Feste, her fool, for
his unexcused absence. Feste responds to this anger with wit and proceeds to disprove the
stereotypes surrounding his title. As a fool, Feste is expected to embody his title and possess little
wit. However, as he and Olivia continue to argue, he uses his wit to flip this cliche, proving her to
be the true fool. Olivia exits this scene in higher spirits, due to Feste's comedy, rather than Feste
exiting in a body bag, as most would have expected. Shakespeare uses Feste's humor and diction in
this scene to develop not only the characters but provides more insight on the social class distinctions
present in the play.
Interactions between Feste and Olivia exemplify the clash among social classes by exhibiting
dialogue between two characters with very different positions in the hierarchy. Olivia, a beautiful
noble, is widely respected and courted Orsino, a nobleman. Feste, on the other hand, falls on the
opposite side of the spectrum. As Olivia's hired fool he has little wealth and lives off of Olivia's
pay and tips those he can make laugh. So, in the context of the time period, it is already abnormal
that a serious interaction is taking place between these two characters. Societal norms of the time
period dictate that Feste should fear Olivia and regard himself as the lesser. Shakespeare's ridicule of
this social hierarchy manifests in this
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16. Social Class in the United States Essay
There is much debate about the issue of social class in the United States. There are arguments about
whether social classes are distinctly separate or fluid, dependent upon one's community or society as
a whole, and if they are subjective or objective (Hughes and Jenkins). However, despite the debate
surrounding social classes, it is still important to try to define them and analyze their effects, as
they are such an important part of our identity and our opportunities in society. Although our
society has tried to appear as though we have no classes, and it is becoming harder to tell what
class someone is in by material goods, classes do still exist today (Scott and Leonhardt). The trend
has been to divide the U.S. into four major...show more content...
Despite the debates about social class, the United States is usually described as having four major
social classes, the elite or upperclass, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class
(Goldscmidt). Classes are generally differentiated by income, education, and occupation although
other factors do have an effect. The upperclass consists of about 1% of the population making
750,000 dollars or more a year as investors, top executives, or heirs to large fortunes (Hughes and
Jenkins). There tends to be no question about who is in the upperclass as they are pretty clearly
isolated in their power and wealth. The middle class makes up about 40% of the population
making anywhere from 40,000 to 749,999 dollars a year (Hughes and Jenkins). The large disparity
in income and wealth have led to a further division of this class into upper–middle class and middle
class in some circles. The middle class usually work white collar jobs as professionals and managers,
however some highly skilled blue collar workers are included. Those in the middle class have
usually obtained higher education degrees and place a high value on individual responsibility for
one's class (Goldschmidt). The working class is composed of about 50% of the population earning
13,000 to 39,000 dollars a year (Hughes and Jenkins). Some also divide this class into a working
class and a
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17. Social Class Research Paper
At the very core of nearly every aspect of the modern life, social class can be seen pulling at the
strings, orchestrating every move. From the obvious, like salary, housing, and friends, to the more
subtle, like fashion, news, and art, social class is at the center of it all. However, one thing that social
class is rarely ever attributed to, is religion. Surprising as it may be, social class directly affected
American's choice of religion, and whether or not they have a religion, throughout the entirety of the
1900s.
For starters, how a person views religion as a whole is dependant on the social class of the
individual. Prussian philosopher, Karl Marx, once described religion as "the opium of the masses"
(qtd. in Mirola, "Religion and Class in America"). Opium, being a commonly used drug that
promotes, in an essence, lack of awareness. So what Marx was trying to get across is that, to the
working class, religion's promise of a better life in death is virtually the only thing keeping them
sane and indifferent in the face of exploitation. The only...show more content...
Studies have shown that around 44% more college graduates than non high school graduates and
that about 36% more persons earning $50,000 or more than those earning under $20,000 consider
themselves to be an atheist; not to mention the fact that the atheist conviction nearly triples in
members during the course of the 1900s (Bromley, "RELIGION AND SOCIAL CLASS";
Sherkat, "Tracking the Restructuring of American Religion..."). This upward trend of skepticism
between both yearly wages levels of education could suggest that having no religion at all is seen
as a sign of higher class. This could also mean that people elect atheism as their belief because they
believe that, by doing so, social benefits would be
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18. Essay on Social Class in the Classroom
Social class has a large effect on the lifestyles of all Americans. But what does it really mean to be
a part of the lower, middle or upper class? These divisions of social class are defined by aspects
such as family income and lifestyle; however, education plays a large role in determining ones
social class. That does not mean that it will determine success in ones life but to interpret, many
people with a further education usually have a higher income as well. Those of the upper class have
higher standards for education and career aspirations in contrast to those of the lower and middle
class. Besides the differentiation of aspirations of the individuals of each social class, it is also used
to determine who will go to college, depending...show more content...
Not only is it stereotypical that students who come from a lower class family, have a weaker
vocabulary, but some tend to believe that their level of academic readiness can not measure up to
those from a higher social class. As quoted from Lee Warren, "differing levels of preparation and
academic sophistication can sometimes be attributed to class background and the quality of previous
schooling" (Class in the Classroom 2). While the type of previous schooling and preparation for
school can demonstrate a student's socioeconomic class background; In contrast, author Richard
Rothstein argues in his article, "The Social and Economic Realities That Challenge All Schools" that:
"the success of some lower class students proves nothing about the power of schools ...between
low–income and middle–class children...on average, the achievement of low–income students is
below that of middle–class students, but there are always some middle–class students who achieve
below typical low–income levels; similarly, some low–income students achieve above typical
middle–class levels."
Which demonstrates that the type of school a student attends can be effective towards their
education, however, it is up to the student to take advantage of the education they are receiving. Just
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19. Social Class And Gender Essay
In this essay I will discuss the impact that a person's social class and gender have had on their
education, and how these two factors have often dictated the quality of education that a person has
been able to get. I intend to describe and critically discuss the impact of a number of educational
acts and reforms, and their effect on people from different social classes and genders. I intend to
focus on three different time periods throughout this essay, these being the 1940s, focusing
specifically on the 1944 education act; the 1960s, focusing specifically on the 1963 Robbins report
and the 1965 education act; and finally the 1980s, focusing specifically on the education act of
1980 as well as the education reform act of 1988. Each of these acts and reports have had the aim of
either...show more content...
The first is that it did not introduce equal pay opportunities for women teachers (Middleton, 1972,
p.190). This may perhaps indicate that the act was not as progressive as it seems to be. It might also
indicate that social class, rather than gender, was the main concern of Lord Butler, and other
politicians during this time period. Therefore, it could be argued that girls being introduced into
secondary education was merely a bi–product of making education free for those from working class
backgrounds.
Another criticism of this act is the way in which children's educational trajectories are judged at
such a young age. There was a concern that it was unfair to decide which school a child went to at
the tender age of eleven, especially considering the fact that the school a child attended would more
often than not dictate the type of job that they would be able to get in the future. Dean writes that:
What had happened, in this view, was that the process of streaming and selection had reached
dangerous grounds. It was digging ever deeper into the system and was irretrievably damaging the
early years of schooling. (Dean, 2011,
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20. Social Classes
Education within social classes have grown exponentially apart over the last couple decades
because many different factors have been presented in today's society. Education plays an important
role in today's classification of social classes, but first we need to understand the different levels of
social classes. Social classes are often determined by education, occupation, wealth, and your social
network. These social classes are the upper class; top 3% and the wealthiest, the middle class; 50% of
the United States, and the lower/working class; typically people of poverty, unemployment, and
homelessness. Each level of class has different guidelines/standards when it comes to education, the
upper class has the highest level of education, of...show more content...
These people are least educated and tend to live paycheck to paycheck. It is this class that you will
find people collecting welfare and living in government housing. Homelessness and unemployment
run high in this class. Anyone in this class lacks proper medical care, adequate housing, clothing and
food. Rarely will you find someone in this class that holds an advanced academic degree, graduated
high school, and are thinking about furthering their schooling into secondary schools past the
mandatory minimum education requirements. The lower class students are usually "labelled" in
school, as the ones who are uneducated, unmotivated, and predictable when the schooling gets
harder. This leads to the lower class students often feeling demoralized and uninspired to become
better, so they give up without even trying to succeed. With little to none support from their family,
most of these students start school unable to read, they test poorly, and are often absent a lot more
than usual. Education usually becomes of not of importance within this social group. By the time,
these students are actually eligible for special programs, grants, or loans they are often unmotivated
or disadvantaged and unwilling to accept help from others, which leads to the decline of education in
the lower class, further separating the educational levels between
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