Voices

From Literacy with an Attitude: Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest (1999)

Patrick J. Finn

Finn was a new reading for me, but felt familiar, with bits and pieces of our other readings sprinkled throughout. It was as if I could hear their voices through Finn's work, emphasized even more clearly than they had been before. Combined, these voices can be more powerful than Superman, but we have to be willing to listen, and willing to let our own voices be heard.  

I heard Johnson's voice, prominent throughout, as Finn argued that "the status quo is the status quo because people who have the power to make changes are comfortable with the way things are. It takes energy to make changes, and the energy must come from the people who will benefit from the change" (Finn xi), much like the way Johnson described the rainy climate we live in. How will the cycle best be broken? Do the people who have the power to stop the rain want to stop it? Or will they hand out umbrellas to stay dry? The systems of privilege will only continue to re-create themselves if the Executive Elite schools teach their students that they must remain in control, and if the working-class and middle-class schools teach their students that they will grow up to take orders and become the machines by which those in the upper class will succeed. 

I heard Lisa Delpit's Aspects of the Culture of Power as Finn explained that "all of us - teachers and students - were locked into a system of rules and roles that none of us understood and that did not allow for much in the way of education" (Finn 5). Both would argue that the Affluent Professional schools embrace the "special kind of listening, listening that requires not only open eyes and ears, but open hearts and minds" (Delpit 46) among teachers and students. Because of the culture of power, are odds set for students when they first enter schools in these drastically different systems, as Finn suggests? 

I heard Armstrong and Wildman, urging us to embrace color insight and look for the "me" in each individual student, much like during Finn's experience in an affluent professional school where the principal began staff meetings by saying, "we are here to consider how we can best serve the whole child in each of our students" (Finn 24). I think they would agree that "this recognition enables the construction of bridges between individuals across identity categories and deeper recognition of the role of privilege in all of our lives" (Armstrong & Wildman 73). As educators, we need to be considerate of constructing bridges between all of our students, so that they may know their potential, regardless of their race or social class. We are able to create in our classrooms the kind of learning environment in which all students will learn to question the status quo and want to make the world a more equal playing field for everyone, regardless of their social privileges. 

I heard the persistent voice of Ira Shor, arguing that participation allows education to be something students do, not something done to students, while reading Finn's reflection of his early teaching years and naive pride of the assistant principal's approval of his obedient classroom. "...but I look back on it now with chagrin. It would have been more accurate if he had said, 'so they could see what could be done to our students'" (Finn 5). Education needs to be an active, engaging dialogue, providing for students the opportunity and means to think critically about the world around them, so that they may someday change the world. 

And then there are our voices, voices of transforming intellectuals. Each Sunday on our blogs, every Wednesday in our seminar, day after day in each of our classrooms. We are "self-consciously critical of inequities in our society" (Finn 156). That's why we're here in this cohort together, isn't it? We have formed our own culture circle, much like the one Freire created, but we are here to discuss how to engage our students in their own...."The group's culture is its own. It is created by them. It is engaged in by them. It can be modified by them. They can step back and think about it and how they create it and engage in it." (Finn 165). I thought of us and our powerful, inspiring discussions that take place every week. 

And then I thought about our students, and how their power to change the status quo lies in their literacy abilities. "The literate are powerful," states Finn. We need to teach our students how to read and interpret, not only texts and media, but the world around them. For our students to want to improve the quality of life of all individuals and groups, we need to connect learning to their lives. Like Peterson, Bigelow, and Christensen, we need to create classrooms for "equity and justice," in order to empower all students. Our voices, supported by the voices of Johnson, Delpit, Armstrong, Wildman, Shor, Finn, and so many more transforming intellectuals on the side of democracy and social justice, have the power to make literacy dangerous again. Let's make others listen.