Literacy with an Attitude By: Patrick J. Finn

Reflection

While reading Finn’s article, I was able to relate it to my elementary school experience.  Anyon would have identified me as a middle-class student who went to a middle-class school.  While in school, I was constantly told to figure out the correct answer.  I had to show my work and explain how I got my answer.  I could not just come up with some answer, the teachers wanted to make sure I understood how to solve the problems.  “Middle-class school was ‘more conceptual’.  It was a matter of gaining information and understanding from socially approved sources.  Work was getting the right answer.  Answers were words, sentences, numbers, facts, and dates.  You could not make them up.  They were found in books or by listening to the teacher” (13).  I was taught how to complete tasks by following directions.  To get good grades I had to take notes from the teacher and read books pertaining to the lesson.  This was the only way for the students to get the answers right on a test.  “If you got enough right answers, you got a good grade” (13).  As Anyon stated in the article, creativity was not priority in my elementary school.  Of course we were allowed to be creative, but it was mostly just for our own entertainment.  My former teachers would sometimes compliment us on our creativity, but we were never graded on it.  “Lessons that explicitly called for creativity and self-expression were ‘enrichment’ and ‘for fun’.  They did not count toward grades” (14).  

Growing up, my parents told me my school work came first.  After school, I would go straight home and sit down at the kitchen table.  I was not allowed to do anything until my homework was complete.  As I grew older, my father refused to let me use the internet for any of my school projects.  Instead, I had to use encyclopedias and if I could not find what I was looking for only then I was allowed to use the computer.  My parents wanted me to succeed and to try my best.  My teachers and my family taught me that anything is possible, as long as I set my mind to it.  I guess that is what it all comes down to, possibility.  “The dominant theme in the middle-class school was possibility.  There was widespread anxiety about tests and grades but there was a pervasive belief that hard work would pay off” (14).  Anything is possibly as long as you are willing to work hard to achieve it.  Getting good grades has always been important to me because I have always known it would lead to college and a successful career.  Growing up, I felt like I could have been a little more challenged in school instead of given the easy A.  By no means am I complaining, but I am certainly capable of learning more than most of my former classmates.

Here is a website that relates to Finn's article.  Check it out!

Questions:

How would you relate this to your own elementary school experience? Did you come from a working-class school, a middle-class school, an affluent professional school, etc.?