Finn: Assignment A

Talking Point #1: 

Finn was discussing his first teaching position.  As he reflected on this time in his career, he made the point that he was not teaching his (working class) students to take charge of their lives but rather to take orders.  "Control was utmost in his mind". As he further reflected, he noted that he was teaching is a system of roles and rules. Communication style, student success, and how the language was used to teach literacy were all impacted by the fact that Finn's class was made up of children from working class families.   (Note: Connection to TAL, Delpit)

Talking Point #2:

As quoted in the text by Finn, "...because we were mostly young, we taught in the poorest neighborhoods.  (Teachers moved to richer neighborhoods with seniority)." 

Here, I would like to connect this sentiment with the events from the Normandy School District and Francis Howell.  Normandy had been failing for 15 years.  The population was working class/poor.  I wonder how many less experienced teachers were in this district for those 15+ years and how many teachers with more seniority moved to 'richer' neighborhoods?  Connecting to TAL and the reaction from Michael Brown's mother when she asked the question: Do you know what it took to keep him in school?  Do you know how many black boys graduate?

I wonder if the outcome of this young man's life would have been different had he been educated in a 'richer' neighborhood?

Talking Point #3:

From Paolo Freire, "Literacy campaigns are bound to fail as long as the 'students' viewed literacy as part of a culture that was alien to them".  Taking from Delpit's Culture of Power tenets, this makes perfect sense.  Freire understood that for the poor in slums...literacy was seen as part of the identity of the 'other'...a hated other in a society where the gap between the rich and the poor is ever so much more obvious (as it is in the United States)". I assert that it IS alive and well in the Stares today.  'It' being the  gap between the rich and the poor.  It is evidenced in what resources are available to the people in power, those who attend schools abundant in experienced, well-qualified, teachers; it is evidenced in what subject matter is taught, and the population(s) that are served.  It is evidenced in the class of families in certain schools and the race of the children attending such schools.  The culture of power was clearly brought into focus with an image from a classmate's blog entry showing the divide between Moses Brown and Hope High School, both in Providence.

Argument Statement: 

This author, Finn, argues that class of students had a direct impact on how (literacy) is taught.