Teachers and administrators of lower class students often provide a completely different education environment than their counterparts who interact with higher class students. These teachers often use more custodial forms of behavior management, offer only remedial course work, assume their students will not do well, interact less with their students, give less encouragement, and worry less about student drop out. The findings are consistent for poor white, black, and Latino students (DeMarrais and LeCompte 216).
Another possible effect social class can provide an educator is the phenomenon of burnout. When teachers and administrators realize that their efforts with students are not guaranteed to offer the rewards that they argue education provides, burnout can occur. Similar to students becoming discouraged by the lack of available opportunities despite their education, this same situation can serve as a source of decreased motivation for teachers and administrators. When an educator knows that despite their students’ achievements, they will be likely to never become upwardly mobile, they may feel discouraged with their job, or even feel that the effort is hopeless (DeMarrais and LeCompte 210).
Possible Solutions
In order to make advances in diminishing the effects of social class, and the inequalities produced by class status, it is important for educators to consider the status of their students, making adjustments in their curriculum accordingly. For example, some teachers, such as those at West Point, are using a modified version of monopoly as a means of actually educating their classes about class inequalities. Participants are assigned social class standings, and must play the game according to the characteristics associated with their given status. For example, upper class players are allowed to always take their turn first, and are also given the most number of chances for playing. Also, upper class players are permitted to buy any property they wish, while those under them are assigned certain areas for property purchase based on their assigned class. While I think this game is beneficial, since it educates students about what it’s like to be in a different class, I feel that it could be harmful because it draws more attention to the discrepancies in class that younger students may not even be aware of. Once students are aware of the characteristics associated with their status they may internalize their label, or develop a self-fulfilled prophesy, feeling that they can never get past their roles within society (Ender 2004).
When consulting my mother, who teaches in a very poor Title I school, I realized how uneducated many of our teachers are about the effects of class status on their students. While my mother has been teaching for twenty-seven years, she was aware of the disadvantages her poor students faced, but did not know the extent of research which had been done to analyze the social implications class status has on education. I feel that it is important to educate all teachers and administrators so that they may be better able to utilize sources which can provide their lower class students with the help they need to keep up with their higher class peers. If a school is not educated that such differences exist, it would not be possible for them to explore possible alternatives and adjustments in curriculum which could make up for the social inequalities, which greatly effect education, society has handed their students.
Additionally, more attempts at acquiring additional funds for poor schools could help to give lower class students more equal opportunities at education. With additional funding and programs, such students may be able to acquire the cultural capital needed to become upwardly mobile within the class system of our society. More vocational programs, teaching students a skill that can be directly applied in the workforce, can also serve as beneficial to students who do not live in an area where educational achievement is necessary for obtaining a job. Where there are no jobs available for students with high education, those who did not seek college degrees can still support their family based on a skill they have learned which is valued in alternative work environments.
Conclusion
In this work I have argued that class status is the biggest problem facing educators today. Inequalities produced by class status are often reinforced by education, and are virtually inescapable by those who hold the status. Students of lower classes do not possess the cultural and social capital needed for them to excel in an environment that values the capital that only members of middle and upper classes can easily obtain. Student may experience alienation due to their inability to adjust to evolving standards of education, begin to devalue education when pay off for hard work is not culpable, and are often inaccurately judged or labeled by teachers and administrators based solely on their class status. Educators and administrators frequently do not offer the same high quality experience to their lower class peers than their upper and middle class students, and may experience burnout due to factors manifested by their students’ status. Educating teachers and students about class inequalities, and adjusting curriculum to make up for inequalities attributed to the lack of social and cultural capital of lower class student can help to alleviate this problem. Also, importantly, additional funding given to poor schools can greatly lessen the educational quality gap between lower and upper class students.
