Social Class

Summary: "Social Class 'Determines Child's Success'"

            Social class is a significant contributing factor to children’s academic success, according to this 2008 article.  Historically, social class has always had a large influence on school achievement.  Graham Holley, the CEO of the Training and Development Agency in Britain, recognizes the need for this trend to change; all children should have equal opportunity to succeed, so teachers must work extra hard to reach out to students who do not have adequate resources that foster educational growth. 

One of his suggestions is to encourage highly trained teachers to work at underprivileged schools by offering them extra pay.  These teachers will need extra support, as children from these schools tend to exhibit more behavioural problems and less motivation.  He notes that “it takes some time to manage a class well and control and manage behaviour [….] It is quite possible to tolerate a level of disruption in a class and for there still to be learning taking place”, but correcting student behaviour does not mean that children are learning any more effectively than before (Garner, 2008).  Teachers who are employed in these disadvantaged schools must work extra hard to improve the learning of these students, which is why Holley suggests offering the best teachers higher salaries to teach there.

Holley also discusses various suggestions for paving the way to a brighter academic future for children of lower socioeconomic classes.  For example, breakfast and homework clubs can provide the support, security and motivation that poorer children may not receive at home; parents may be too busy working to make ends meet to provide nutritious meals or academic support.  If the school can alleviate this burden from busy, hard-working parents, perhaps the parents will spend less time worrying about breakfast for their children; the small amount of money they save from sending children to breakfast programs instead of purchasing breakfast items could go towards other important childcare needs.  Another perspective states that disadvantaged children come from homes of neglectful parents who simply do not care enough about the wellbeing of their children to make breakfast or help with homework.

Critical Perspective

            Many people would benefit from Holley’s propositions to increase the achievement of lower-income students.  Teachers would be intrinsically motivated to continue their education and do well; they are presented with the opportunity to further a disadvantaged child’s education and make a positive difference in his/her future which creates an internal sense of satisfaction.  Prospective teachers would be extrinsically rewarded because they would receive a higher salary to teach in such fragile environments. While tax-payers may feel irked about paying more money into teacher salaries, they may be comforted by the possibility that, because of these specialized teachers, tax-payers may pay less into the justice system if children from disadvantaged homes benefit from these specialized-teacher schools.  This is to say that, because poor children tend to have higher levels of behavioural problems, perhaps the lessening of these problems may result in a lower juvenile criminal detention rate.

            Furthermore, the children from poor families would also likely benefit because their teachers would be providing them with the academic and emotional support they may lack at home.  Because these students often exhibit higher levels of behavioural problems than students from middle- or upper-class families, specialized teachers could also act as an intervention to these problems and lessen or eliminate their occurrences.  Furthermore, with Holley’s proposition to include breakfast programs, students who do not receive adequate nutrition before coming to school would certainly be eating healthier and improving their physical wellness.  Those who participate in the homework clubs can receive additional support from teacher supervisors, and spend more time in a controlled and stable environment.

However, some children may be left out of Holley’s propositions.  Students who attend schools in wealthier neighbourhoods, but who live in poor families, may be marginalized because Holley does not mention anything about these students.  They would likely not receive specialized instruction like the schools in poorer communities. 

Bringing Balance

To ensure that all children from low socioecomic statuses succeed in academics (and other areas of life), I think that Holley’s ideas about breakfast programs and homework clubs should be instated into all schools, regardless of neighbourhood.  All children could benefit from these programs, especially if they are advertised around the school as ‘being open to all’.  This way, stigmas of social class are eliminated.  Furthermore, I think that teachers should be paid more, no matter where they teach, based on their performance.  While this may be a ‘utopian view’, I believe that teachers who put forth extra effort to help their students succeed should be rewarded.  Whether teachers take extra courses on how to deal with diversity in the classroom, or if they supervise the breakfast or homework programs, teachers who go ‘the extra mile’ should be paid accordingly.

See below for a video from the School Improvement Network that suggests ways to help students from lower social classes succeed.