Literacy with an Attitude

After reading Literacy with an Attitude I immediately thought of the movie Freedom Writers. One of the most obvious reasons I thought of Freedom Writers was because there is a white teacher (Finn) teaching in a poor community school. As I kept reading another similarity I found was that Finn in Literacy with an Attitude was placed in a low performing class like Ms. G in Freedom Writers.

One of my favorite parts of Literacy with an Attitude was when Finn talked about how the principal told him that when he had visitors he would walk slowly passed his class:

“ I was very flattered when the assistant principal remarked that he brought visitors past my room “so they could see what could be done with our students,” but I look back at it now with chagrin. It would have been more accurate if he had said, “so they could see what could be done to our students.” (Finn 5)

That was one of the most powerful parts of the reading. Too often we have teachers and principals treating students with less importance because of their personal lives or because of their race or culture. Unlike most teachers in a poor community Finn believed that a teacher isn’t doing with the students but rather what he is doing to the students. Every child deserves a good teacher; one that cares. The principal made it seem like “what do we do with them?” It seems almost as if they were treated as cases rather than learners. Finn has made it clear that we don’t do nothing with them (the students) but we do something to them … teach them

The second part stood out to me was because of how profound it was:

“Aronowitz and Giroux1 suggest that we must view teachers not primarily as technicians equipped to accomplish goals set for them by curriculum experts and administrators but as intellectuals, free women and men with special dedication to the values of the intellect and the enhancement of the critical powers of the young.” ( Finn 155)

I am not even quite sure what to say I after I have read that part about four times. Like the first quote I pointed out this quote is powerful but so much more. This quote basically puts an emphasis on how essential teachers are to child’s life. I agree that teachers aren’t just in a school to teach students academics but also to leave an impact on a child’s life to help shape them into good people. I am not sure where are how somewhere along time people have lost their humanity. Every child deserves a teacher that not only teaches them to read a book but also help them grow and learn about things and teach them to be hungry for all kinds of knowledge.

This picture is exactly the way teaching should be thought about.