Literacy with and Attitude

The one thing that I kept thinking about when reading this piece was how contrasting the affluent professional school was to the working-class school. While reading about the working class school I was immediately annoyed and couldn't believe what some of the teachers were saying about their students. I was also very bored with the way each classroom was run, which was mostly based on keeping the students busy rather than promoting learning. The students did not have any creativity and work was "often evaluated in terms of whether the steps were followed rather than whether it was right or wrong," explained by Finn, and gives the example of the teacher telling their students to make a grid without giving them any information on what they were doing. When he student suggested a more efficient way of doing the assignment, the teacher replied with "No you don't. You don't even know what I'm making yet. Do it this way or it's wrong." This response from the teacher shows how little the teachers cared about the lesson and whether or not the students learned, but that they kept them busy with work that was easy to grade. Just from reading the first paragraph about the affluent professional school, it was clear to see how completely different the environments were. The students were able to be creative and the environment promoted learning and independence. They could do their work in a comfortable environment and the work promoted academic growth rather than busy work. Finn discusses this contrast with his grad students: "But when I suggest to my hard-bitten students that poor children are not being as well educated as they could be, they are not amused. They take it as a personal attack from someone who has been living in an ivory
tower for the last thirty years, and they resent it-a lot." This reading partially reminded me of some of the stories we have shared about our service learning experiences. Some of the things I have heard from the people within our class has either resembled those of the working-class classrooms or the affluent professional schools. It really saddens me to hear that the classrooms like the working-class schools resembled are still around and honestly angers me that nothing has been done about it. If a teacher does not have faith in their students then he or she has picked the wrong profession. Teachers are supposed to be role models, and even beacons of hope to those students that do not believe that they can perform well or even graduate from school if they are old enough to worry about that. The fact that some teachers write off their students at the beginning of their academic career disheartens me greatly. It is completely wrong to say that a child is never going to learn something, when in reality that teacher is probably not connecting the lesson to them on ways that they will understand better. I think it is important to change the way these types of classrooms are run and to have more faith in the students overall. When a teacher does not have faith, then the students will not believe they can perform their best and will always think they are doomed to fail. 


I believe that it is very important to foster creativity and literacy within a classroom. Above all, that is what made me angry. The students in the working class schools were not able to foster their imagination or creativity in any way and were only expected to do each task in the way that they were told. If they strayed from the accepted method, they would be marked incorrect regardless if they got the right answer in the end. Yes, it is important to understand the method being taught, but not all students learn in the same way. If one student was able to achieve the same answer in another method, they should not be marked wrong for it. This video discusses the importance of creativity within public schools, using the example of film making as a method for expression and a source of interest for students to be dedicated in. This could go for any topic and reiterates the point that when students are interested and engaged in what they are learning then education becomes a higher priority and students do better overall. Attendance, test scores, interest goes up once students become actively involved in their education. This is another video that discusses how to foster education within the classroom, something I believe that is simple to do but forgotten sometimes and is useful for all current and soon-to-be educators.