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Literacy with an Attitude: educating working-class children in their own self-interest PATRICK J. FINN, 1999 Albany, NY, State University of New York Press 243pp., $16.95 (paperback), ISBN 0 7914 4286 1
Patrick Finn's new book titled Literacy with an Attitude: educating working-class children challenges the traditional educational paradigm found in 80% of schools throughout the United States. Written for teachers, parents, community organisers or anyone else seriously interested in the education of working-class children, the author argues that the traditional methods of education facilitate a self fulfilling prophesy that prevents working-class children from acquiring the literacy skills needed to enhance their social well-being. The author argues that the pedagogy employed in most schools is linked closely to the social class of the children served by the schools. As such, a pedagogy bound in social class produces students prepared vocationally for jobs incumbent to their social class.
The author postulates four distinct levels of literacy: performance, functional, informational and powerful. Development of powerful literacy skills provides individuals with the ability to evaluate, analyse and synthesise information that is presented to them. In order to facilitate the development of higher forms of literacy, the author advocates the wide application of progressive principles of education such as those used in schools attended by the children of the elite. The author's arguments are influenced by the methods employed by Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire. By engaging illiterate groups in conversations about culturally bound discussions of justice, Freire motivated students to become literate as a form of empowerment.
Chapter 1-6 focus on factors that inhibit the development of powerful literacy skills. The writer describes a number of factors that contribute to the educational experience of working-class children, including political factors designed to maintain the status of working-class populations. The author also gives extensive treatment to the notion...