Finn Talking Points

In "Literacy with an Attitude" Patrick J. Finn argues that, in general, children of working-class citizens are educated to become working-class citizens themselves, while children from middle-class families are educated to obtain middle-class professions, and the children of affluent professionals are educated to become affluent professionals.

Students of low income families receive an education where they are given simple tasks and they are expected to follow procedures. These children are not given the opportunities to be creative, make decisions, and have meaningful conversations in their classes. They also tend to resist being taught.

Children from middle-class families value education a bit more because they understand that good grades can lead to good colleges which then lead to good careers. The possibility for them to become middle-class workers motivates them to succeed in the classroom. However, their education is lacking a connection to their life experiences and opportunities for them to show creativity.

Affluent professional children are given an extremely different education which includes many opportunities for them to show creativity, make decisions independently, and conduct real experiments. Their education is closely connected with their life experiences and they are provided with a happier learning environment. They also learn to value themselves and each other. They receive an education that empowers them to make decisions, take a side, and defend their beliefs (what Finn describes as "literacy with an attitude").

Finn promotes the teaching strategies of Paulo Freire, who encourages real dialogue in the classroom. Freire sees classroom dialogue as a conversation between teacher and students on a particular topic without the teacher trying to persuade the children to see things a certain way. The teacher must temporarily suspend his or her beliefs in order to let the students determine their own feelings on the topic. Freire's literacy program consisted of "dialogue, conscientization, and literacy." And the students were motivated to learn in order to become empowered.

Finn also provides the educational model of Peterson, Bigelow, and Christensen as a guide for teachers to follow. This model includes providing a curriculum that relates to the lives of the students, promoting critical thinking, encouraging students to get involved in acting upon their beliefs, and learning based on first-hand experience. Finn adds his own portion to this model as well. He claims that, along with all of those parts, "powerful literacy and school discourse" should be taught explicitly in the classroom.

In conclusion, Finn wants working-class children to be able to receive the same type of empowering education as the affluent professional children receive. He thinks this can be done by explicitly teaching powerful literacy, promoting real classroom dialogue on issues that the children experience in their own lives, encouraging students to take a side on power issues, and having them collaboratively work together in order to make changes and break out of the "status quo."