Stereotyping - Snyder Style

My favorite reading from this collection was definitely Mark Snyder's "Self-Fulfilling Stereotypes". I took a special nterest in the study of how sereotyping affects the workplace as well as classrooms. It seems obvious to me that many schools use different forms of "leveling", if they call it that or not. Also, stereotypes can determine whether or not a job applicant assumes a position where they apply to or not. The welding example from the reading shows that misinformation can definitely show positive or negative effects, either way there are drastic changes. If you were an employer and needed your employees more on time and scoring higher with aptitude testing in their trade or business, wouldn't you use this technique to encourage the managers and employees? Though most of the studies we read about in this anthology are performed by professors and experts who earned degrees from well known or Ivy League schools, why not put these ideas to test in our own backyards?

In a roundabout way, I have witnessed stereotyping of students by teachers. Through all of my years at school I saw this, even now at the university. For example, I couldn't register for the honors colloquiem just because I wanted to, I'd have to earn my grades to get in there. In middle school we had a program where our grade was split between three teachers. Maybe this is just heresay, but I think we were seperated by test scores from assessments we took after completing kindergarten. Middle school it was even more obvious and realistic. We had "teams", 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, and then on those we were divided amongst three teachers once again. I started the school year in one teachers class and I wasn;t performing at the same level as the other kids, I didn;t have the work ethis required to be in that classroom, and I knew it. So, after the first quarter I talked to my parents and I was moved across the hall to another class. We read maerial that was less demanding, required less of a thought process as the class I was in beofre did. We did less wrinting and more projects, instead of spelling tests on lined paper... we got to color them after the test. I recognized that I had changed because I "wasn't good enough" to be in the other class, but I succeeded where I was and I earned my grades the same as the others in that class.

Though my story doesn't relate to stereotypes, I knew the teachers were constantly assessing us each quarter and watching for signs of improvement, a chance to bump us to the next level. I strongly believe that the kids in the highest level classes knew the position they held, and were sure to stay in that class no matter how much work it took.