Literacy With An Attitude - a must read!!!

There is one book from my undergrad studies in education that I keep referring to at least once a year with regards to some other, seemingly totally unrelated, issue or conversation. I've recommended it to all my friends and family, and those who read it thought it was fantastic. As I was reading the Van Dijk article, I knew that this was yet another one of those times when the book is so amazingly pertinent to the discussion. Perhaps some of you read it already - I know we have some teachers in the class. It is called "Literacy with an Attitude" by Patrick J. Finn, and it's all about the "(re)production of power" through all sorts of discourse. In fact, it is so relevant to Van Dijk's discussion that I was sort of surprised there was no mention of it, or of Paulo Freire, the amazing brazilian education whose theories and actions are a major part of this book.

Essentially, Finn demonstrates, by referring to several studies, how education (meaning teachers' and parents' discourse) contributes to the continuation of class segregation. Lower class kids are being taught in a way that will train them for the kind of jobs they are supposed to have - blue collar, factory workers, obeying directions, very limited outlet for creativity or initiative. The same things happens with middle class kids, upper middle class and upper class - each is taught with the aim to develop the skills that they will need later on in life. Often this divide happens in the same classroom, with the same teacher! And the parents are usually (sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly) enablers and supporters of this class perpetuation!

 I do apologize for the multitude of exclamation marks, but when I first read this book I finally got a glimmer of understanding about this huge question that always bothered me - why can't some kids just do better? After all, schools often invest tons of money into all sorts of programs and gadgets to help the underperforming kids. But without underlying empowering discourse and without the kids themselves "buying in" in Finn's words - and this is where Van Dijk's "social cognition" comes in - there will be no real change.

Read the book. Really.