Literacy with an Attitude

As soon as I completed the reading, I bought Patrick Finn’s book, Literacy with an Attitude, Educating Working-Class Children  in Their Own Self-Interest.  I felt as though I could relate to him and I could apply what he writes about to my own classes.  He uses phrases such as “empowering education”, “domesticating education”, and “oppositional identity” which I have not thought about since my teaching classes.  Also, he references Linda Christensen’s case study in her co-written book, Rethinking Schools which is a book I have had on my shelf for some time and haven’t had a chance to read.  Finn and Christensen think very much alike.

Finn’s focus is on how important it is for “working-class students to see that literacy and school knowledge could be a potent weapon in their struggle for a better deal, not a bunch of sissy stuff for which they have not use”.  He challenges teachers who believe they cannot bring social justice connections into their classroom because of curriculum restrictions, administrative disapproval, etc.  In addition, he tackles tracking as far as using the lower level classes as a dumping ground for the behavior problems from the upper level classes.  He says, “You want to talk about a tough teaching environment.”  I sure agree with him!

Finn’s definitions on the terms noted above: 

·         Empowering education – leads to powerful literacy, the kind of literacy that leads to positions of power and authority (pg. ix); the upper class

·         Domesticating education – leads to functional literacy, literacy that makes a person productive and dependable, but not troublesome (pg. x); working class and middle class

·         Oppositional identity – when some minorities feel they have been wronged by mainstream Americans and that “acting white” is a betrayal of their people (pg. x)

Finn talks at length about Paulo Freire’s work on teaching literacy to poor adults in Brazil.  Through his work, Freire used codifications to help his students understand how culture and literacy affects their lives.  It was fascinating to see the pictures he used to break down this very difficult concept into a fairly easy pictorial handbook.  The video below is Freire’s last public interview before his death.

Finn points out that just giving people the idea that their life could be better is not enough.  They also need tools and they need to work in groups and communities to really foster change.  He quotes Desmond Tutu, “When missionaries first came to Africa they had bibles and we had the land.  They said, ‘Let us pray.’  We closed our eyes.  When we opened them we had the bibles and they had the land.”  This is where Finn brings in Christensen.  Christensen agrees with Freire, but she doesn’t stop at the fact that her students are disadvantaged and can make a difference.  She brings her students to places where they can see people making a difference such as picket lines and demonstrations.  She tells them how important it is to work as a group to make change since working as an individual is rarely successful. 

Finn talks about Robert Peterson’s work “How to Read the World and Change It” which I found fascinating.  In fact, I plan to try one strategy mentioned in Finn’s book Monday morning.  Peterson uses a circle activity in order to get students to share their writing.  I have students write in their writer’s notebook everyday and this year I have a class that is struggling with opening up.  It is a Sophomore CP class in which I have 16 advanced freshman and 10 CP sophomores.  The freshman think they are smarter than they really are and the sophomore’s resent them for being in, what they consider to be, their class.  Anyway, Peterson recommends that each person must share one personal fact or opinion.  I am going to modify it so that each period five students must share; however, they can pass on one rotation.  I am not sure how to organize it and how to grade it which is where the students will come in.  They will need to come up with the grading system.

For those of you that did not pick Finn, I would highly recommend him.  Although there was a lot to read, it was worth the time spent on it.