While an undergraduate, I worked in a neuroscience lab and was considering graduate school. Handling rats and mice day after day was not a long term future I could imagine, so I had begun to look into computational neuroscience. It would require learning how to code so I signed up for a bioinformatics bootcamp that was occurring over winter break.

I felt nervous most of the time, most of my peers were already fluent in different coding languages and different programs to model proteins and the brain, while it was my first time learning so many avenues to explore neuroscience existed. This was a familiar feeling, to feel so unfamiliar. 

One day while I ate lunch, the director of the program sat down next to me.  Attending a state university, it was so easy to go unnoticed by professors unless you made the effort yourself, and I had always been shy. We started a great conversation and eventually, he asked, “What do your parents do?” And I, without missing a beat, volunteered, “My father is a taxi driver.”

The conversation halted. The abrupt shift took a few minutes to find me before I felt shame, not for my father who I am insanely proud of, but for myself for not being more careful of who I shared this piece of my heart. I love my father and find his profession honorable, and I felt like for a moment I forgot to share that honor when I spoke because I thought it to be assumed. 

At that moment I was reminded of how divided people in the United States are by their occupational identities. I wondered if the director of this program felt as strange sitting in front of a taxi driver’s daughter as I did when for the first time at 19 I met someone my age whose parents were not security officers, bodega owners, or taxi drivers, but college professors. 

How do people live decades of their lives not interacting with people in different occupations? 

Education researcher Jean Anyon’s response to that is that the divide occurs way before people enter the workforce, but as soon as fifth grade. 

In her widely shared article “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, for a year Anyon observes four different schools that are separated by social class and the type of occupations it prepares the students for. 

1. Working-class Schools

The first school consisted primarily of parents that were in what were called “semiskilled” or “unskilled” jobs. The classrooms in these schools were focused heavily on rules. Textbooks weren’t used but instead, the teacher would generate steps students need to follow, students would then copy those steps, and then complete worksheets on those steps. This type of classwork aligns with work in the future that is mechanical and routine. 

2. Middle-class Schools

The occupations in this school Anyon studied had a little more variation. The parents in this school were described as blue collar workers that were well-paid, such as plumbers, people that were employed by the city, such as firemen, or “middle management” workers such as accountants. Classwork in this school revolves around getting the right answer, but there are different methods that students can choose. Textbooks are available and used and creativity isn’t involved. This type of class work aligns with bureaucratic jobs that require paperwork to be completed.

3. Affluent Professional Schools

Parents of children in this school are “professional,” they have jobs such as cardiologists, corporate lawyers, or engineers. Classrooms are creative centers that involve creating films, writing editorials, and graphs. Unlike the previous schools, rules are not enforced but explained. This type of class work aligns with artists and intellectuals. 

4. Executive Elite Schools

Most parents in this school are the presidents or vice presidents of multinational corporations or top executives in firms on Wall Street. There isn’t much creativity in this school either. There is a deep focus on critical analysis. Students aren’t given right or wrong answers, they are told to discuss amongst themselves until they arrive at a conclusion. Language is not just a tool for self-expression but something to observe and manipulate. This type of class work lends to leadership and entrepreneurship.

Now, Anyon wrote this in 1980. She also was clear she only observed one or two schools for each category so she didn’t want to generalize her findings to the schools across the whole country, but to inspire more investigation into a larger number of schools. 

Data on New York schools is lacking but necessary. 

For a state like New York, we know segregated schools that are separate and unequal are still a reality. Stuyvesant High School, one of NYC’s elite schools, only accepted 8 Black students out of 895 freshmen students in 2021. The latest data available from 2018 shows 37% of students were eligible for free lunch. Contrast this with my school, where 95% of students qualify for free lunch, and 98% of students are Black or Latino. 

What is the quality of education that is occurring in these different classrooms and how can we bridge the gap?