Literacy with an Attitude

 1. At the start of Finn's article, Literacy with an Attitude, it is explained that there are two different types of literacy. the first being powerful literacy (literacy that empowers students to become valuable members of society and leaders). and the second being domesticating literacy ( that makes for productive members of society).  Finn believes that those of whom have powerful literacy are responsible for making the status quo. A quote from Finn says "The status quo is the status quo because people who have the power to make change are comfortable with the way things are". Meaning those who have powerful literacy, literacy that teaches how to make change, don't use their powerful literacy because they don't want change as they already benefits with the way things are.

2. Before Finn started to talk about his own teaching experience, he mentions Freire who teaches literacy to adults in low income areas. Instead of just sitting down the these adults and teaching them their "ABC's", he brings up justice. "He ask his students what they might do to secure justice and suggested that literacy would make them far better able to engage in the struggle they would certainly face if they tried to get a better deal".  Finn bring this up as a way to engage with the idea that literacy is power. Freire brings up something that can be helped by being literate and this prepare those who are in front of him to learn.

3. The second half of the article is describing the learning environment of four schools in New Jersey. Finn brings up Anyon who did research on a low class school, working class school, affluent school, and an executive elite school. he describes what science and history and other subjects looks like, he also describes the relationship between the teacher and the student, how authoritarian a classroom is and how students explain what knowledge is. Anyon gives each school a theme. the theme for the first (lower class) school was "resistance". the second school (woking class) was "possibility". the third school (affluent) had a theme of "individualism" and "humanitarianism". and finally the fourth school (executive elite) had a theme of "excellence". each of these themes gives and overarching idea of what each of these school values.

Argumentative Statement: The author. Patrick J. Finn, argues that we should be teaching middle class students powerful literacy. He believes that powerful literacy is the catalyst to change and by explicitly teaching working class/ middle class students powerful literacy we can work toward change.