Sergio Hurtado
2/8/15 ENGL 846
Hidden Curriculum Odds are if you're like most Americans your probably not bathing in swimming pool oodles of money and you have to work hard to obtain what you got. And if that be the case? It is for most of us, then you probably went to a basic school, to have a basic experience that made you as basic person as everyone else so you could fit in everyday basic society! Well you can actually organize the different educational options into 4 classes. And judging were you stand on the economic ladder decides where you're education is obtained! Knowledge is truly power and some schools don't want to see you thrive as a powerful being, because you'll pose a threat to the status quo. According to Freire's article the education working class citizens obtain is referred to as the banking method. Because it reflect to him a model of how the bank works, such as, P.76 "The teachers task is to organize a process which already occurs spontaneously to fill the students by making deposits of information which he or she considers to constitute true knowledge " Almost as if each individual is worth money, and what they are to society is a small corporation or bond, so whether your filling up classrooms, courtroom, prisons, colleges, its all good grits and gravy, the government is getting its money's worth from us, and they're making sure we're following the rules, like the "good citizens" they want us to be. I'm sure if you do have enough money it would be ideal for you to send your child maybe to an affluent professional school or even an executive elite school at that. These type of schools provide where more room for children to explore and expand on their creative nature which opens a spectrum for kids to explore what they're really passionate about. Maybe your child has a specific learning disability, and he or she needs a specific learning method, probably hands on or visual and neither working nor middle class would be subject enough to provide that help for your child. Because those type of schools are made to set up your child for a reoccurring destiny that you probably went through or maybe a little better or possibly worse. Now we need to break free and seek the damage that has been done to us and take action for ourselves to decolonize our minds, and make our own lanes to run in. Enough of what somebody else wants us to become. In a working class school its mostly about if you have anything written down on paper or if you showed up to class. Genuinely, as long as seats are filled, money is flowing through and everything goes according to the plan. For middle class schools education is pushed a little bit further and memorization patterns and skills are mandatory abilities that should be acquired, and they will be tested accordingly. In Anyon's paper he refers to "The questions are almost always designed to check on whether the students have read the assignment and understood it: who did so-and-so; what happened after that; when did it happen, where, and sometimes, why did it happen?"
The problem is not the schools. If I'm mad about that I can't blame the industry or I really shouldn't put the blame on any external forces. If anything " this is my fault the world is set up this way, and if I ever want to see a change, I must seek it within myself." Because ultimately everything happens from within. I believe this is the type of mentality you should develop before you go out at least attempting to be a part of a revolution. Because rioting and breaking stuff (hitting their pockets where it hurts) isn't always the best way to go about bringing forth the best alternative, there are plenty of even peaceful methods you can get your ways across, but of course drastic times call for drastic measures. There are times of peace and times of war. p81 Pedagogy of the Oppressed " Whereas banking education anesthetizes and inhibits creative power," Your imagination is an energy source that you should be able to tap into since birth, you have the right to use your creativity. Creation is so powerful almost a super power, if you have the ability to have a thought or idea and map it out in the world you could manifest or give birth to such an idea in the physical realm. Most public schools would like to strip you of your super powers and to be completely honest I notice elders that didn't receive an education such as my grandparents and compared to others. I notice they interact more freely and less judgmental in the world. I realize nobody really grows older, and we're all really just kids that get bigger and wrinkly and grey over time. I can't blame my parents before me for they didn't know any better, they are just big kids that found each other in this world and made me. School makes everything feel foreign, like age because really it's just a social construct, again to border us from each other. Honestly I view everyone as my peers. In school I remember trying to seek validation from others, as if I was seeking friendship. But eventually I got hit with the lesson of "threes no need to impress anyone but myself" But it's funny because as these social beings we subconsciously order ourselves according to social value and survival status, we tend to gravitate to natural leaders. But in reality we're all leaders and kings of our own lives. Free to steer ourselves wherever. It's just plenty of leaders have fallen asleep and caught amnesia. But all my people are bosses. Gradually if we want to steer toward the rite direction we need to start owning up and taking responsibilities for all our actions and realize everything we do obviously has a much bigger say with a much bigger picture even if we can't see the whole frame.