Mariia Gonchariuk

English 1100

9/23/2015

Prof. Young

Status Race For Education

          How powerful is status? Can status promise you a bright future? Can it lock you down in less perspective ways of living? Chairperson of the Department of Education at Rutgers University, Newark, Jean Anyon believes that ones future depends on their family status. I personally believe that the investigation she did on this topic is right in some ways but wrong in many others. Because a person can succeed in life no matter from what type of family he or she come from, it all depends on their character and their abilities to overcome whatever life throws at them.

         Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work by Jean Anyon shows types of schoolwork in contrasting social class schools. “Differing curricular, pedagogical, and pupil evaluation practices emphasize different cognitive and behavioral skills in each social setting and thus contribute to the development in the children of certain potential relationships to physical and symbolic capital, to authority, and to the process of work.(p.10)” With the help of her research between 5 schools, she states that schoolwork separates its meaning and quality by different social classes, like working class, middle-class and elite class. For instance, she's trying to prove that lower class schools are preparing their students for working class jobs when elite schools are on path of teaching their kids to become doctors, lawyers, CEOs in the future.

         Although I do believe that Anyons point about the quality contrast between elite class and working class schoolworks is true, my trust in ones abilities cannot be forgotten. I believe that if a person sets a goal to strive towards and will do whatever it takes to accomplish it, he or she will have the same chance of succeeding with the person from elite class, that had everything given to them. Many cases in this country of people that came from poor and broken up families that had no money to feed not talking about going out to study at a school had found their way out and are living their life to the fullest right now. It all depend on ones power withing themselves.

Works Cited

Social Class And The Hidden Curriculum Of Work By Jean Anyon, and 1/9/09 11:44 Pm. Social                  Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work by Jean Anyon (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

Mariia Gonchariuk
English 1100
09/17/2015
Prof. Young

Free the Dialects of Nurture

          Living in the USA, the country famous by its diversity of cultures, and not appreciating the dialects people bring with them is not okay. It is basically telling people that their roots do not matter here. Everybody should have a right to express their inner self through whatever language they want. The special issue of CCC raised a question if students should own their varieties and dialects of nature. I strongly agree, students must have a right to use their dialects in their academic works, because they are the ones to put a piece of themselves in their work.
        If teaching that identity is important but at the same time not allowing students express themselves in whatever language they feel comfortable in is not fair. CCC states: “We affirm the students' right to their own patterns and varieties of language -- the dialects of their nurture or whatever dialects in which they find their own identity and style.” Student that feels comfortable in his work is the student who will show their writing abilities to the max.
         America as a nation that varies with so many cultures should be the biggest supporter of dialects brought down by student because, “A nation proud of its diverse heritage and its cultural and racial variety will preserve its heritage of dialects.” So may all the students in this country be free to express themselves with their dialects and language variety.

Mariia Gonchariuk
English 1100
09/02/2015
Prof. Young

What Identity Means to Me

     Personally, I believe that identity is one of the most valuable things that a person can have. There 

are many factors that shape our identities. Things such as personality, background, language, 

 religion, gender, ect. Identity is how you and others perceive yourself. Same as Anzaldua, language 

and background is very important to me. Being myself a foreign, my language is very dear to me. 

But also, what is very important to me, is the treatment of others, which I believe is a big part of 

shaping the true identity.

     "So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language."- Gloria Anzaldua. She is right. 

Nothing hurts more than being told that the language that you were born to learn and loved almost all

 your life is now pointless and should be forgotten. My language shapes my identity because it is 

something that has an extreme value to me and shows true colors of my identity.

       My background,  Ukraine, is what made me the person I am today. Valuing my background each 

and every day because it gave me many opportunities and lifetime experiences.   

      Anzaldua did not mention anything about treating others in her passage but I feel like it is 

extremely important. It shows the true identity of a person to others. 

      Identity is not only your view on yourself but other people view on you. The way you talk, 

the way you rep your homeland and the way you treat others make people have good or bad 

impressions of you. Identity is something we can shape with our knowledge and our acts. And I take 

pride in my identity.

Works Cited

Anzaldua,Gloria. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Teaching Developmental Writing. Ed. Susan Naomi Berstain. Fourth ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 245-255. Print.