Entry #6 Finn

Literacy with an Attitude

Patrick J. Finn

Samantha Marsella 

Connections

            We have read quite a few pieces from different authors and in this post, I am going to write about some connections I found from this reading and the other ones we read. The first connection is about Rose talking about how structural racism works and how we can find it in education. In the reading by Finn, he writes that when rich students get an empowering education nothing changes. But when you give the working-class students empowering education you get literacy with an attitude. In the working class schools the teachers would make the students follow their steps without telling them what they are doing. They skip pages in the books, and they think they are extras and don't need to be used. In the rich class schools, the teachers taught them everything grammar, vocab, math, etc. They even taught them how to make relationships with the economy, authority, and work. You can obviously see that the more privileged children didn't have to worry about getting a good education. 

        In the NY Times article Still Separate, Still Unequal it talks about how there is segregation in schools. I find that this reading is similar because the rich children go to one school and the working-class children go to another. I feel this makes segregation a part because why can't these children all go to the same schools. They were all pretty much white and read from the same books and all located in Northern New Jersey. The only differences were how much their parents made and their social class.

Honestly, I feel people and schools are still like that today. Private schools tend to be for children that have more money, and public schools tend to be for children that are in the working-class. Below is a link about the benefits of private and public schools and how much people have to make to afford it.

Private School vs. Public School – Cost & Comparison (moneycrashers.com)