Finn describes his experiences in graduate school alongside the writings of Paulo Freire, a university professor in Brazil who founded an adult literacy program for the illiterate poor, specifically of his experiences with working with his community. He describes different approaches Freire utilized when working with this group of people, starting first with reflections on the concepts of justice before even beginning the process of teaching them to read and write. He approached his education in this way because he believed 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” (2). Rather than teaching this community literacy to become better citizens, workers, and Christians, he taught them literacy to engage in the struggle for justice. At this point in time, discussing justice was seen as a radical viewpoint due to the huge divide between the rich and the poor.
Sound familiar yet?
We live in a society where people are beginning to point out a similar-sized gap between the ultra-rich and those who are stricken with poverty. It would make sense for those in poverty to be assisted to where they can be lifted out of this state of poverty and have a high quality life, right? Well, it doesn’t to the ultra-rich. Time and time again, bills that would shrink the gap between the poverty class and the ultra-rich are constantly thrown out, because then that means less money for the rich. And not just that, we have seen a constant fight to defund and dismantle our own Department of Education, in the name of “fighting wokeness.” The reality is, the rich that hold power do not want us to be educated. They want us to learn to become better citizens, better workers, and better Christians, just like Freire’s experiences in Brazil.
So with this in mind, what is there to do? Is there anything we can do? Do we have the power to change the culture of education being crafted?
Well, it’s not easy, but we have been given this power through our Constitutional rights, no matter how much our government tries to reduce them. We have the power to peaceably assemble and protest, we have the ability to call upon our lawmakers to do what is right for their constituents, and we have the power to create change through our votes. It may not seem like our vote has that kind of power, but slowly but surely it can create a change towards a better society. There is more power in numbers.
Hi Zach, great post! It’s truly scary the more you realize just how intentionally the system is designed by those in power to ensure it remain in the hands of few. I’m not sure whether its the case that corrupt people achieve great wealth and power or if great wealth and power corrupt people but either way, it seems those with the greatest ability to make meaningful change, never have any intention to do so. I believe advocacy is our greatest support, the more we can expose these systems, the better we can fight them.
ReplyDeleteHi Zach, I really enjoyed reading your reflection. Its so interesting to me how we blame achievement gaps on poverty and call people lazy and based on this reading, I think a lot of it is absolutely due to the fact that as we saw, they teach entirely different curriculums. It feels frustrating that even as people are collectively acknowledging the weather gaps, it feels that nothing changes. I absolutely agree that there are power in numbers and hope as more and more people realize the injustices are in plain sight, something will be done!
ReplyDeleteHi Zach. I agree that Finn's reading of Anyon's work gives more context to the processes of systemic inequity in education. Public education in our country has always been subject to hacking by the wealthy and powerful, in the same way that those who control the levers of power benefit from socialist programs for the rich (bail outs, government subsidies, tax breaks, etc) while leaving the rest of us to suffer from harsher capitalist outcomes. If your children are going to executive elite schools paid for by the tax dollars you aren't paying because you've rigged the game in your favor, it benefits you to undermine or ignore the needs of the public education the rest of us receive. I like that you ended by listing constructive actions we can take: I've enjoyed Timothy Snyder's book "On Tyranny" which outlines actionable forms of resistance we can engage in to push back against the forces you describe (there's a really cool graphic novel adapted version I first saw in a 7th grade classroom I was observing.)
ReplyDelete