It's not math--it's class warfare: Viva la Revolucion!

Coming from a working class family, I really enjoyed Finn's analysis of working class education. Essentially he says that there at two kinds of education. The first is "empowering education, which leads to powerful literacy, the kind of literacy that leads to positions of power and authority" (ix). While the second is "domesticating education, which leads to functional literacy, literacy that makes a person productive and dependable, but not [and this is important] troublesome" (ix-x). Guess which kind of education Finn argues that we are providing working class kids?

Finn cites a study done by Jean Anyon which describes the working class school she observed as restrictive and procedural. Anyon describes how "Work [at this working class school] was following steps in a procedure. There was little decision making or choice" (10). Teachers had low expectations for their students--providing all students with low level readers (regardless of ability), asking them to copy notes about the directions of an experiment but not allowing them to preform it, etc. Teachers were also heard disparaging their students as "lazy," "dumb," and incapable of learning. Not surprisingly, these students developed an antagonistic relationship to school and their teachers.

Now despite this appalling example, I don't think Finn is saying that everyone who teaches working class kids is a horrible shrew who hates children. But he is saying that it is difficult to get working class kids to buy into school as we know it. Thinking of my School Within a School students, many of whom are working class, I'd have to say Finn's assessment is dead on. For whatever reason, my students have developed an antagonistic relationship towards school. Many of them have voiced their opinion that "school is a waste of time." They do not see the value in what we've been trying to teach them and therefore seek ways to escape our influence--defiance, apathy, etc. All of this reminds me of Delpit's ideas of the "culture of power." These kids come from families outside of the middle-class "culture of power." These students don't see the inherent value in learning to think critically because the working class has been trained from the very first days of kindergarten to follow rules and procedure. Now that doesn't mean they are mindless robots. They may follow rules to a point but they've been taught that the system is there to keep them in check. Thus they rebel against the system often in ways that are self-sabotaging--being disruptive/defiant, dropping out, etc. Finn discusses this when he concludes that working class children in Anyon's school "were learning to follow directions and do mechanical, low-paying work, but at the same time they were learning to resist authority in ways sanctioned by their community" (28).

Finn's solution to all of this is, well, revolution. But a empowering revolution, not some bloody coup that is more about punishing the other side than generating change. Referencing the days in which the gentry forbade the lower classes from reading the Bible for fear it would give them"ideas," Finn advocates for "dangerous" literacy. He cites Paulo Freire's work in Brazil as the basis for his own ideas about how to get working class students to buy into education. First Finn claims you have to make them want the knowledge that you, the teacher, has. This is done by connecting whatever you are trying to teach them to their own lives. Finn advocates a discussion based approach to this problem. By dialoging with our students, allowing students to express their thoughts and opinions and giving serious consideration to what they have to say, we send the message that their knowledge is valuable. This is the first step in getting them to buy into their own education--convincing them that they have something to bring to the table. School can be a place where knowledge is shared not just forced feed.

On that note, I'd like to conclude with Herman Blume's "Take dead aim on the rich boys" speech from Rushmore.

"Take dead aim on the rich boys."