Literacy with an Attitude: Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest FROM THE PUBLISHER
This book is for teachers, parents, and community organizers who are on the side of working-class children. It's about the resistance of working-class children to the kind of education they typically receive, education designed to make them useful workers and obedient citizens. It's about working-class habits of communication and ways of using language that interface with schooling. It's about a new brand of teachers, followers of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire who are developing effective methods for teaching powerful literacy in American working-class classrooms. It's about teacher networks where teachers devoted to equity and justice find mutual support. And it's about community organizers who are bringing working-class parents together around education issues and helping them mount effective demands for powerful literacy for their children.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Finn (education, State U. of New York at Buffalo) denies the common claim that the poor are not smart enough or are merely too lazy to excel at literacy. Instead, he argues that the poor have commonly received what he calls domesticating education which leads to productive, docile citizens, while the wealthier students get empowering education, allowing them to maintain their positions of power. He draws on his own experiences as a teacher with a working class background to elucidate some differences among classes in communication styles and assumptions, and discusses methods developed by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire for teaching working class students. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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