Culture deprivation Essay Example

to do with lack of money in the family. Middle class families can afford to move into the catchment areas of high achieving schools which working class families can’t. This then leaves working class children attending schools with not as high grades, meaning their achievement is limited. In addition, working class families have a lack of physical resources such as money, space/room or equipment which can lead to an adverse affect on their educational progress.

If they don’t have money, this could mean they struggle to buy clothes and the equipment they need for school. Not having equipment can affect their learning obviously, but not having the latest clothes could lead to the child being bullied. This would then make them distracted during lessons and causing a hindrance to their learning. Lastly when it comes to material deprivation, not having enough money to buy a big house can lead to cramped living conditions. This would then lead to two issues.

The first being that there isn’t enough space for the child to be able to do their homework properly, and in silence. The second issue being that colds and illnesses can be spread easier and quicker as everyone is living in close proximities. The third and final factor that leads working class children to underachieve when compared with middle class children is cultural capital. Culture capital is about having the knowledge and understanding you need in order to learn and achieve in the future. Middle class families are usually well travelled, this gives them the knowledge and culture that they need.

This can also be translated into wealth and power. This puts

working class children at a disadvantage as they might not always understand the pragmatics of what they are being taught in school. When it comes to teaching, the majority of the time teachers are more interested in the knowledge and culture that the middle class children have over the stories that the working class children have to tell. This then leaves them out of the classroom discussion as they might not fully understand what is being said.

Overall there are many factors that play a role in working class children underachieving when it comes to education. Although culture deprivation is a key issue, both materialistic deprivation and culture capital play an equal role alongside culture deprivation. However, even with this in mind, a lot of responsibility of achievement is also down to the attitude of the child itself. It doesn’t matter what class the child is in, if they want to achieve they will. As long as they have the right attitude when it comes to education, anything is possible.