Would you be the one to go against the direction of wind?

What made social class? How is it being measured? How do you feel about it? After reading chapter five and chapter six, I strongly agree that cultural capital and cultural reproduction reflects social class. Cultural capital is the knowledge; values which a person develops from home, school and society which make a person feels that he is more superior to others. Cultural capital affects how a person thinks, considers, understands and lives. This cultural capital could have been developed from a long time ago and being transferred to others from generation to generation. It is reproduced by the ruler of a country, society, teacher, family and friends. It is therefore, the thinking of the people in a country is very important.

For example, teachers, parents and students have in mind that the students studying in the first ranking classroom is better than the other students in other classes. All the parents will want their children to be in the first ranked class. Teachers believe that they have more responsible in teaching the students with the most effective ways to maintain the grades of the students in that class. Thus, the students were given many opportunities and priority. Students in this class also believe that they are the best. They know that they will have to work harder than other students. Unconsciously, this has created social class among students.

Through my own experience in my primary school, firstly, classrooms were separated into A and B. All the students in A class never liked to mingle with the students in B class. They felt that B class students were not as smart as they were. They only stay among their classmates.

Secondly, different positions in school will also cause social class. Teacher will nominate a few students who are well doing in their studies and behaviour to be the school prefects or classroom representatives. Here again, parents feel proud if their children were chosen to be a school prefect or a classroom representative. Both the teachers and parents subtly influence in how a student will think. These students will feel that they are not the same as other students.

Finally, it’s the test. The test showed us clearly who are the smarter students and vice versa. Then the smarter students will long to be together. Teachers were not satisfied with those weaker students and parents even caned the poor students. It seems like all the students will have to be the top ten’s but there are over forty students in a class. That is not all. During the year-end report card day, all of us from A class will feel really nervous, tension and frightened. We were afraid that we would be downgraded to B class. We were being told by the teacher that if we couldn’t get good score, we would be transferred to B class. Our parents thought that way too. Therefore, the reproduction of the cultural capital here is, if you are not an A class student, not a prefect or a class representative, not the top ten students, you are not good enough.

We can also always see in the media or even the banner in front of the tuition centre advertising about students getting straights A’s. Parents will want their children to study there and students themselves may want to study there as well. Why? The media educates people that if you study here, you will score straight A’s. Again, for those students who are not having tuition there, they feel uncomfortable when they are to talk about it to their friends. Peer pressure comes into place. Most of the parents will focus on getting their children the best and maybe also the most expensive tuition centre for their children. Why has education for children have been so complicated nowadays?

Education and media are strongly being intervened by government intervention. Every country has its own culture and its own set of education system. Therefore, people have developed their values through their own country’s ruling system. For example, a ruler that has always put their own benefits into ruling their country would not have much concern about the education of his people. They would want the types of people which would not cause any threat to them. It was like the more a person learns, understands, knows about others and knowledge gained, the more that person would question and cause problems. In such countries, the hegemony of the ruler comes into priority. Education and welfare would not be taking into consideration. Therefore, the education system is designed with the interest of the culture of a country and most probably not for the needs of students. In this kind of system, what could students learn? Were the students given opportunities to compete fairly among themselves?

The students were either the hare or the tortoise. As in general, the hare is faster than the tortoise, however, in fiction, the tortoise won the race because the hare fell asleep. It doesn’t really matters who won the race. The agent of education which is the teacher should teach the students to identify the strengths and values of the hare and the tortoise instead of putting them onto a race. Therefore, the cultural capital is putting students into the race of the hare and the tortoise. The only person who has the power to change the cultural capital should be a teacher. 

- Eagle -