Blog Post #5: Literacy with an Attitude

 Literacy with an Attitude

Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest 

By Patrick J. Finn 

Three Talking Points 

1. "Over time, political, social, and economic forces have brought us to a place where the working class (and to a surprising degree, the middle class) gets domesticating education and functional literacy, while the rich get empowering education and powerful literacy" (Preface- Page X). 

• We exist in a society that educates students according to their socioeconomic status. The rich continue to have the most powerful literacy, educational opportunity and privilege in society because various systems have been set in place for affluent students to succeed from the moment they enter kindergarten. There are endless possibilities for access and opportunity for affluent students due to their means and the high-quality education delivered to them. On the other hand, working and middle class students are pushed to the background and taught functional literacy, one that keeps them within their socioeconomic status, unable to break through the cycle of socialization. Schooling is unjustly determined by a student's socioeconomic background!

2. A) "In the working-class schools the dominant theme was resistance" (Page 12).

     B) "The dominant theme in the middle-class school was possibility" (Page 14).

     C) "In the affluent professional school the dominant theme was individualism with a             minor theme of humanitarianism" (Page 18).

    D) "The dominant theme in the executive elite school was excellence" (Page 19). 

•    The themes of each school analyzed by Jean Anyon are extremely different from one another due to the vast differences in socioeconomic status. Resistance from the working-class students was revealed in the demeanor and behavior of the students in school who did not meet the "traditional" expectations of school set by the educators who were seen as mere dominant figures of power. Thus, low expectations were set for these students and they were treated as passive recipients of their education. Possibility in the middle-class school came from this idea that a students were building a relationship to the economy that they were about to step into while seeing the values and rewards of education and exploring their role in it. Individualism and humanitarianism were the main themes in the affluent professional school because students were encouraged to value "higher level" thinking through their personal creativity, discovery, and various experiences. The excellence from the executive elite schools came from the powerful literacy that students were granted to prepare them to not only exist, but to excel in every capacity of their future endeavors. These themes were so different not only because of the socioeconomic differences between these student populations, but also the educational opportunities and expectations placed onto these students.  

• 3. "I'd like to hope that a child's expectations are not determined on the day that she or he enters Kindergarten, but it would be foolish to entertain such a hope unless there are some drastic changes made" (Page 25).  

• Unless drastic socioeconomic and sociopolitical changes are made within nation-wide, state-wide, and city-wide systems, literacy inequality will continue to be a huge problem in education. The abilities and academic expectations of students will continue to be determined from day one by their financial means because greater access equals greater opportunity. To set expectations of a child's literacy, education, and future due to their zip code and financial means is an injustice. 

Argument Statement 

In his work Literacy with an Attitude: Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest , Patrick J. Finn argues that the quality of education that students receive should not be determined by their zip code or socioeconomic status. He argues that working and middle class students in any school district deserve the same  level of high-quality, empowering education with powerful literacy that affluent students receive.