Throughout Lakhani's novel, Schooled, there is a discernable class distinction between Langdon's teachers and its students. Anna, a recent graduate of the prestigious Columbia University, has decided to take the path of teaching at an elite private school in Manhattan. She has every intention of educationally bettering the lives of her students but soon finds herself being manipulated by their millionaire parents who essentially control the school system. This educational structure serves as an example of a Marxist perspective of capitalism. Marx established his belief that capitalism is an entity comprised of the proletariat, the widely oppressed and manipulated majority of the populace, that works to the advantage of the bourgeoisie, the marginal but wealthy ruling class. Within the school system teachers and tutors make up the proletariat, oppressed and manipulated by the bourgeoisie class of their student's parents. This novel exhibits that capitalism and the elitist behaviors of manipulation that results are ultimately inescapable in any system where significant disparities between social classes exist.
In the beginning of the storyline the reader is presented with Anna's perception of corporate exploitation, which justifies her entrance into a world of teaching that she believes will contrast workings of economic organizations. She expresses her desire to escape corporatism and materialism, dejected by even the thought of having to drive her parents "luxury car that promoted the evil empire" to the train station (5). Her friend Bridgette is presented as the type of corporate slave that Anna refuses to become, strutting in her Jimmy Choo heels and attending high-class functions that will only get her addicted to luxury and therefore the long hours that can afford it. Anna accepts a position at Langdon to avert the fate of her friend and evade the depravity of capitalism. However, Anna's idealized vision of a pristine teaching job is exposed as a sphere of capitalist influence in which she is the proletariat. On orientation day she is presented with a personal laptop, a token of her first bribe similar to the elegant dinners awarded to her friend Bridgette. As she is introduced to her students she discovers that her position as teacher and the small luxuries she does have come at a price of subservience. Her seventh grade English class quickly informs her that on certain days, such as bar mitvahs and Yom Kippur, she cannot assign homework and that they will not tolerate a breach of these privileges. She initially attempts to resist the entitlement of these children, and brings it to the school's attention when she finds that her co-worker Randi has been doing student's work for them. Despite her moral efforts, she is forced to push incidents such as these to the back of her mind at the request of Langdon's headmaster and subsequently conforms to the will of Langdon parents whom exercise their money as a form of power.
Through her own acceptance of a role as an over-paid tutor that literally does the schoolwork of her clientele, Anna is swallowed up into a proletariat of teachers and tutors ruled by a parental bourgeoisie. In her struggle to be more like the elite class in her material assets and conspicuous consumption she degrades her values as an educator for their benefit. The bourgeoisie population of the school system exploits the minimal income of their teachers and uses their affluence as a tool through which their children can achieve high-marks. These parents are thrilled with Anna as long as she is supporting their efforts at constructing academically artificial child prodigies. They supply her with big fat checks and other material perks in addition to their undying gratitude for her dishonest undertakings on homework assignments and essays. However, this friendly association is shattered when Anna eventually can't take the pressure of tutoring any longer and chooses to award grades fairly and not based on monetary assets. It is at this point in time that the displeased parents grow hostile, sending Anna nasty personal messages and even complaining about her behavior to the administration. Clearly this bourgeoisie assembly is only appreciative of the system when they are manipulating it.
Anna entered Langdon with hopes that a profession as noble as teaching would provide her with a safe haven from the morally poisoned domain of capitalism, quelling material obsession and class divisions. Unfortunately she discovers that the realm of schooling encompasses all the competition and socio-economic ruptures she would encounter at any banking job. The elite wealthy take advantage of the less well off; they simply wear the face of parents and teachers instead of CEOs and blue-collar masses. The bourgeoisie manipulates a range of systems, which they arrange in a flawed manner skewed to their own advantage. Anna's disapproval and struggle to amend these injustices displays the negative backlash that would ensue should the elite be challenged. Overall, Schooled illustrates that even in small and seemingly innocent institutions such as schools, financial markers of class engineer omnipresent capitalist philosophies that permit the bourgeoisie exploitation of the proletariat.
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