Wande Adeyemo           

English 1100_35               

Prof. Young

24 September 2015

                                                                                Jean Anyon essay

                Merit. According to the online definition of merit, this means “the quality of being good or worthy” (www.dictionary.com). In 1979, Jean Anyon, a writer at Rutgers University wrote an essay explaining the different types of jobs, and behaviors in the classroom that correlated with the social classes. She surveyed classrooms and observed the students, teachers, principals, etc. to gather data. She concluded that the working class people were in poverty and their behavior in the classroom was just to listen to the teacher and not to ask questions. They were given steps to get the right answer but they didn’t know how they got to that final answer. She also said that the middle class didn’t know what they were doing or why they were doing it but they listened to the teacher and got their work done. The middle class peoples job were people who got paid for their labor. I, personally think that this essay doesn’t hold merit anymore. Considering the fact that this essay was written years ago, her point doesn’t stand strong now. In my own experiences, there are a mixture of working class and middle class people in public and private schools these days. Generally in high school, we are taught to be prepared for college. They teach students one way, no one asks questions and all we do is copy what’s on the board and we listen to what our teacher says. Also, with the jobs, I know people who come from struggles and rock bottom experiences that are now rising to the top. No job specifically defines where you came from. This essay may have been right when she wrote it years ago but today’s world has changed indefinitely and I don’t think that this essay holds merit.

We have the right to use our own language.

Wande Adeyemo
English 1100
Prof. Young
September 18, 2015

                                                                  My langauge

       "Okay class, you have an assignment this weekend." says my professor. "For the assignment, you will have to complete a getting to know me page on your blog. This is your chance for me to get to know you as a student and person. There are no rules but to keep the post appropriate for an academic setting. Enjoy your weekend." Hearing this from the class, everyone was excited. There were no rules and for once, our professor was giving us a chance to expose the real us. A lot of questions would float around in my mind especially the question of, "How does my teacher want this essay?" She didn't mention anything about proper use of langauge or MLA format so I'm going to write this post how I want it. After all, it is my post. "We affirm strongly that teachers must have the experiences and training that will enable them to respect diversity and uphold the right of students to their own language." This is saying that us, the students have the right to use our own language when we are in our English classes. Whether it's our first or second langauge, slang or code, we have the right to express ourselves how we want. In our english class, mainly we are taught how to write and what to write in a formal response. For once, I agree that students should be able to express themselves in different ways. We should be able to respect diversity among the class and share each of our intelligence's within each other. We should be able to develop different ideas and different ways of writing. We shouldn't be limited to the uniformed style of writing.