Movement through social classes

Throughout Finn’s book several themes were outlined that I could relate to as an educator. There were shocking, exciting and informative chapters that sparked discussion with my friends and colleagues. One theme that emerged throughout the chapters that resonated with me was the idea of movement through social classes. It seemed transitioning between classes was difficult because elitist would repress the classes beneath them. The idea of belonging to a certain class and having less opportunities to improve socially was difficult for me to read because I come from a household where I was the only child with both parents from the working class. They are now considered the middle class, but with my upbringing I could have had a future in either class depending on what parent I listened to. My mother enrolled me in several activities after school and did not believe that the poor grades I received in high school were what I truly could achieve. She spent a great deal of effort instilling values and raising me to be an independent individual who would be able to support myself and one who was given the opportunity to find a profession that I love. My dad however, had a different mentality in terms of raising me. He is someone I will always look up to for many reason but throughout my childhood he was rarely home, because of the intense hours of his profession. He assumed like him that school was not for me and that the grades I was receiving in high school was the best I could do. My mother enrolled me in summer school every year from grade 9 to O.A.C (grade 13) even if I was passing. At the time I thought she was trying to ruin my summer, but looking back she just wanted to push me in accomplishing my very best and instilled the importance of education; I am sure she also knew it would keep me out of trouble. She would always say when I struggled in school, “no one can take your education away from you; the knowledge will be with you forever.” I have taken that with me through high school, university, teachers college and now the masters program. My mother always wanted to give me opportunities that she was not given as a child which leads me to my paper.

I noticed in the chapters that there was a fear in class movement; the elite feared the working class would become literate. The "roadville" and "maintown" parents were raising their children to be successful in different ways. "Roadville" students learned through oral traditions and parents focused on teaching good behaviour, while "maintown" students were encouraged to communicate effectively and acquired accomplishments through involvement in activities outside of school. Both sets of parents were raising their children to maintain the class that they were born into.

The chapters gave me an understanding as to why there are so many different levels of literacy comprehension. With all the different learners and levels in the classroom, how do you achieve literary success? As many scenario were mentioned throughout the chapters with the success and failures of teaching literacy, I found myself with the challenge as a teacher in creating an enriched literacy environment where all my students can be challenged and can achieve personal success. Success for me entails a career that can provide financial stability, self gratification and happiness. I see too often students graduating high school with no idea what field they would like to embark on; or graduating university with a degree and not knowing how to use it, or even an adult working a job that they hate because they are not being challenged. I am one of the lucky ones who for the most part did not enjoy school but thankfully had a patient and persevering mother who gave me many opportunities to find a field that I would enjoy. One who saw my strengths and steered me in a direction I did not know I wanted till I was there. Now a days subjects are theory based where the teacher is encouraged to make their lessons fun, hoping students find enjoyment out of it. We need to bring back the technology based classes like shop and home economics even hands on field trips where students can experience first hand real life skills that even if they do not want a career in the culinary field they are learning life skills that may be more useful to them. Students need to be given opportunities from parents and school to find which direction they will do well in and have the confidence to achieve more than what is expected of them.

As a grade 7 and 8 math teacher for the last 4 years I have seen the importance of literacy as many of my students are unable to read a math problem, let alone retaining problem solving skills previously taught, ultimately they are unable to answer the questions thoroughly. My school is in a low income, high ELL population, where all classes have a mixture of students with literacy skills across the board from reading at a grade 4 level to a high school level. These levels greatly affect their achievement in my subject areas. As a society we have taken away many opportunities for students to become successful in school by focusing more on test scores, six week grade goals and board initiatives all while teaching concepts to make sure students will be successful next year.

How do we challenge the needs of every student so they will experience future success, where they will be able to give back to our society in a positive way? Finn’s book opened my eyes to see where students are coming from and now I have a better understanding of the upbringing of some children to see why students learn literacy differently and at different stages in their schooling career. This does not change the fact that, I am still faced with the challenge of teaching students to read while working on a math problem involving the Pythagorean Theorem.

Overall I feel there are several reasons why students learn literacy differently; social classes, upbringing and the value of education within the household all lead to students not being given opportunities to experience a plethora of areas that will provide students with the understanding of what they may want to do in the future. We as educators are trying to challenge each of our students to achieve standard results on tests and report cards while trying to teach children the basics.