Literacy with Attitude (Reflection)

     The reading for this week's is based on the reading from Patrick J. Finn. In this reading, he discusses the contrasts and relations that literacy has depending on which social class people are apart of. Finn talks about how the social class one is a part of often determines what kind of education the children of said class will receive. Often stating that the education system often keeps people from escaping/maintaining the social class that they are a part of. Finn classifies two different types of literacy that are taught in the American school system. The first is Domestic Literacy, which he argues was used as a way to control people and ensure that upper-class people stayed on top. The second type of education Finn talks about is Empowering Literacy which is meant to encourage people to think more creatively and challenge the current systems that we have in place. 

    

These couple of excerpts from this book also struck a couple of nerves with me as did last week's reading. Based on my time as a social worker. I physically saw the talking points that he was mentioning in this reading. I just did not recognize them until they were recontextualized in this manner. From my time being in the trenches trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I physically saw the idea that people who were from lesser-developed social classes were set up to fail. Youths that did not receive a proper education or had little to no education struggled the most when attempting to follow expectations set by the facility, with all attempts to help them failing due to their attempts to even try as stated in Finn's preface. But the children who received a high level of education or were from a higher social class were able to understand and be creative with the rules of the unit to benefit themselves. Usually done in a non-malicious way that was transparent. It is just really shocking seeing all of these ideas and talking points brought up in these manners and that I am actually able to relate to them on a personal level. I definitely would like to check out more of his work over the summer. 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/137087.Patrick_J_Finn