Literacy with an Attitude
Literacy with an Attitude
Educating Working-Class Children In Their Own Self-Interest
-Patrick J. Finn
Talking Points
1. “First, there is empowering, which leads to powerful literacy, the kind of literacy that leads to positions of power and authority. Second, there is domesticating education, which leads to functional literacy, literacy that makes a person productive and dependable, but not troublesome."
I never thought about it like this before. One of the reasons I became a teacher was because I tutored an adult in college because he somehow managed to graduate high school while never learning how to read. I saw how much it impacted his everyday life and how much it held him back. One of the driving forces for me to become a teacher was the responsibility I felt for not letting any student graduate without being able to read. Sure, if you can read you can take your driver’s license test, read nutrition labels, read bills, read a prescription from the doctor, etc. but I didn’t realize just how low I was setting the bar. I want my kids to be able to do more than just function and be a “productive person,” I want them to be able to have agency and better their lives and their families’ lives.
2. “I was schooling these children, not to take charge of their lives, but to take orders.”
This makes me think of the Lisa Delpit article because I feel like there is a fine line to tread. I think Lisa Delpit promotes authoritarian teachers because it can help the reacher overcome cultural barriers of communication they experience with their students. However, I also do not think she would want a teacher to be authoritarian to the point that it impedes the students from understanding how to take care of themselves and function as an agent of change in the world.
3. “He believes there’s no point, in fact, of teaching 'i before e except after c' unless he does the rest.” (The rest being teaching powerful literacy, teaching students what is at stake politically, and teaching them how to cooperate with each other to move their ideas forward.)
And “Why should they listen?”
It is so crazy, because I grew up thinking that we should listen to teachers just because we should listen to teachers. They have the knowledge and I need to learn this stuff to go to college. I rarely had a practical use for my knowledge, I just learned it because that is what I was supposed to do. I struggle to think of ways to get my students to buy into a lesson because I never had to be bought.
Finn argues that in order to overcome educational inequity, teachers of poor and working-class children need to teach empowering education and powerful literacy.
Talking Points
1. “First, there is empowering, which leads to powerful literacy, the kind of literacy that leads to positions of power and authority. Second, there is domesticating education, which leads to functional literacy, literacy that makes a person productive and dependable, but not troublesome."
I never thought about it like this before. One of the reasons I became a teacher was because I tutored an adult in college because he somehow managed to graduate high school while never learning how to read. I saw how much it impacted his everyday life and how much it held him back. One of the driving forces for me to become a teacher was the responsibility I felt for not letting any student graduate without being able to read. Sure, if you can read you can take your driver’s license test, read nutrition labels, read bills, read a prescription from the doctor, etc. but I didn’t realize just how low I was setting the bar. I want my kids to be able to do more than just function and be a “productive person,” I want them to be able to have agency and better their lives and their families’ lives.
2. “I was schooling these children, not to take charge of their lives, but to take orders.”
This makes me think of the Lisa Delpit article because I feel like there is a fine line to tread. I think Lisa Delpit promotes authoritarian teachers because it can help the reacher overcome cultural barriers of communication they experience with their students. However, I also do not think she would want a teacher to be authoritarian to the point that it impedes the students from understanding how to take care of themselves and function as an agent of change in the world.
3. “He believes there’s no point, in fact, of teaching 'i before e except after c' unless he does the rest.” (The rest being teaching powerful literacy, teaching students what is at stake politically, and teaching them how to cooperate with each other to move their ideas forward.)
And “Why should they listen?”
It is so crazy, because I grew up thinking that we should listen to teachers just because we should listen to teachers. They have the knowledge and I need to learn this stuff to go to college. I rarely had a practical use for my knowledge, I just learned it because that is what I was supposed to do. I struggle to think of ways to get my students to buy into a lesson because I never had to be bought.
Finn argues that in order to overcome educational inequity, teachers of poor and working-class children need to teach empowering education and powerful literacy.
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