Literacy with an attitude

I promised myself I was going to read this entire excerpt, I wasn't just going to skim through chapter 13, but I was going to read the entire thing.  I really wish I hadn't.  I am no saying that this piece did not have some interesting facts, or that thee writer did not make some great points, because he did.  But I have to be honest and say that I dozed off more than once while reading this.  It was not as captivating as the other readings we've done and I struggled to follow along with some of it.   I believe that his argument is in line with Lisa Delpit's on that those with the power receive a better education than those without.  In fact in the preface one of the quotes that stuck out to me was:  "There have been times in history when the prospect of literacy of the have-nots has been a source of endless angst of the haves".   I also felt some Johnson in there when he state, again in the preface, " The status quo is the status quo because people who have the power to make changes are comfortable with the way things are.  It takes energy to make changes and the energy must come from the people who will benefit from the change.  But the working class does not get powerful literacy and powerful literacy is necessary for the struggle".    Then again I heard Delpit when Finn said " I was from the working class and I knew how working class and poor kids related to authority.  They expected people in authority to be authoritarian".   

I honestly do not understand what Paulo Freire 's teachings were, that whole chapter went over my head

I found Anyon's study to be very interesting, and I can definitely see the validity in her assessment and conclusion's.  pg 20 " The working class children were learning to follow directions and mechanical low paying work, but at the same time they were learning to resist authority in ways sanctioned by their community.  The middle-class children were learning to follow orders and so the mental work that keeps the society producing and running smoothly.  The affluent professional children were learning to create products and art, symbolic capital, and at the same time they were learning to find rewards in work itself and negotiate from a powerful position with those who make the final decisions....They were learning to become masters of the universe."

The last quote that really hit me was from pg 25, " Those who are the smartest and work the hardest go furthest?  Who's kidding whom?  When students begin school in such different systems, the odds are set for them."