Literacy with an Attitude
By: Patrick Finn
In the reading Literacy with an Attitude by Patrick Finn, Chapter 2 I thought was the most important part. It talked about a study they did on different schools that had different wealth classes. The schools were mostly made up of white students. Jean Anyon studied fifth grade classes in five public elementary schools in rich neighborhoods and not-so-rich neighborhoods in northern New Jersey. These are the five schools in which they studied all of them having different wealth classes.
In one school, designated executive elite, family breadwinners were top corporate executives in multinational corporations or Wall Street financial firms. Their incomes were in the top 1 percent in the United States. The teachers were women married to high-status professionals and business executives. The knowledge in the school was academic, intellectual and rigorous. More was taught and more difficult concepts. Reasoning and problem solving were important. The dominant theme in the executive elite school was excellence--preparation for being the best, for top-quality performance. "In the executive elite school the children were developing a relationship to economy, authority, and work that is different from all the other schools. They learned grammatical, mathematical, and other vocabularies by which systems were described. They were taught to use these vocabularies to analyze and control situations. The point of school work was to achieve, to excel, to prepare for life at the top,"(Finn 20).
In a second school, designated affluent professional, family breadwinners were doctors, TV and advertising executives, and other highly paid professionals. Incomes were in the top 10 percent for the nation. Teachers came from everywhere in the state, usually in the middle and upper class. Creativity and personal development were important goals for students. Teachers wanted students to think for themselves and make sense of their own experience. Knowledge in the affluent professional school was viewed as being open to discovery. "In the affluent professional school the dominant them was individualism with a minor theme of humanitarianism. "Children in this school were developing a relationship to the economy, authority, and work that is appropriate for artists, intellectuals, legal and scientific experts and other professionals whose work is creative, intrinsically satisfying for most people, and rewarded with social power and high salaries," (Finn 18).
In a third school, designated middle class, breadwinners were a mixture of highly skilled, well-paid blue- and white collar workers and those with traditional middle-class occupations such as teachers, social workers, accountants, and middle managers. Incomes were better than average for the United States but below the top 10 percent. Teachers grew up in the neighborhood of the school, and they believed their job was to teach knowledge found in the textbooks. Knowledge in the middle-class was a matter of gaining information and understanding from socially approved sources. It was all about getting the right answer. The dominant theme in the middle-class school was possibility, meaning that if you had the knowledge and worked hard you could get good grades, good education and good jobs. "Children were developing a relationship to the economy, authority and work that is appropriate for white-collar working-class and middle-class jobs:paper work, technical work, sales and social services in the private and public sectors.... They were rewarded for knowing the answers, for knowing where to find answers, for knowing which form, regulation, technique, or procedure is correct," (Finn 15).
In a fourth and fifth school designated working class, about one-third of the breadwinners were skilled blue-collar workers; about half were unskilled or semiskilled blue-collar workers, and about 15 percent of the heads of households were unemployed. Most of the teachers were born in the same city as the school but lived in better sections, most of them were young. Knowledge was presented as fragmented facts. Work was following steps in a procedure. The things they learned were more about lessons on how to behave. There wasn't much learning of anything besides behavior. If they learned how to add and subtract that was a bonus. The dominant theme was resistance. "These children were developing a relationship to the economy, authority, and work that is appropriate preparation for wage labor-labor that is mechanical and routine," (Finn 12).
All of these schools teach differently and prepare the students for different areas of work. I think that this is very interesting on how they all differ so much! I can easily compare the tutoring to the working-class schools. All the teachers worry about is if the students behave well that day. The teachers even struggle with just keeping them well behaved never mind actually teaching!
http://socialistworker.org/2009/08/05/getting-your-class-organized
In the reading Literacy with an Attitude by Patrick Finn, Chapter 2 I thought was the most important part. It talked about a study they did on different schools that had different wealth classes. The schools were mostly made up of white students. Jean Anyon studied fifth grade classes in five public elementary schools in rich neighborhoods and not-so-rich neighborhoods in northern New Jersey. These are the five schools in which they studied all of them having different wealth classes.
In one school, designated executive elite, family breadwinners were top corporate executives in multinational corporations or Wall Street financial firms. Their incomes were in the top 1 percent in the United States. The teachers were women married to high-status professionals and business executives. The knowledge in the school was academic, intellectual and rigorous. More was taught and more difficult concepts. Reasoning and problem solving were important. The dominant theme in the executive elite school was excellence--preparation for being the best, for top-quality performance. "In the executive elite school the children were developing a relationship to economy, authority, and work that is different from all the other schools. They learned grammatical, mathematical, and other vocabularies by which systems were described. They were taught to use these vocabularies to analyze and control situations. The point of school work was to achieve, to excel, to prepare for life at the top,"(Finn 20).
In a second school, designated affluent professional, family breadwinners were doctors, TV and advertising executives, and other highly paid professionals. Incomes were in the top 10 percent for the nation. Teachers came from everywhere in the state, usually in the middle and upper class. Creativity and personal development were important goals for students. Teachers wanted students to think for themselves and make sense of their own experience. Knowledge in the affluent professional school was viewed as being open to discovery. "In the affluent professional school the dominant them was individualism with a minor theme of humanitarianism. "Children in this school were developing a relationship to the economy, authority, and work that is appropriate for artists, intellectuals, legal and scientific experts and other professionals whose work is creative, intrinsically satisfying for most people, and rewarded with social power and high salaries," (Finn 18).
In a third school, designated middle class, breadwinners were a mixture of highly skilled, well-paid blue- and white collar workers and those with traditional middle-class occupations such as teachers, social workers, accountants, and middle managers. Incomes were better than average for the United States but below the top 10 percent. Teachers grew up in the neighborhood of the school, and they believed their job was to teach knowledge found in the textbooks. Knowledge in the middle-class was a matter of gaining information and understanding from socially approved sources. It was all about getting the right answer. The dominant theme in the middle-class school was possibility, meaning that if you had the knowledge and worked hard you could get good grades, good education and good jobs. "Children were developing a relationship to the economy, authority and work that is appropriate for white-collar working-class and middle-class jobs:paper work, technical work, sales and social services in the private and public sectors.... They were rewarded for knowing the answers, for knowing where to find answers, for knowing which form, regulation, technique, or procedure is correct," (Finn 15).
In a fourth and fifth school designated working class, about one-third of the breadwinners were skilled blue-collar workers; about half were unskilled or semiskilled blue-collar workers, and about 15 percent of the heads of households were unemployed. Most of the teachers were born in the same city as the school but lived in better sections, most of them were young. Knowledge was presented as fragmented facts. Work was following steps in a procedure. The things they learned were more about lessons on how to behave. There wasn't much learning of anything besides behavior. If they learned how to add and subtract that was a bonus. The dominant theme was resistance. "These children were developing a relationship to the economy, authority, and work that is appropriate preparation for wage labor-labor that is mechanical and routine," (Finn 12).
All of these schools teach differently and prepare the students for different areas of work. I think that this is very interesting on how they all differ so much! I can easily compare the tutoring to the working-class schools. All the teachers worry about is if the students behave well that day. The teachers even struggle with just keeping them well behaved never mind actually teaching!
http://socialistworker.org/2009/08/05/getting-your-class-organized
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