Blogpost #8 - Finn, from Literacy with an Attitude

 After reading Literacy with an Attitude, I felt challenged and also hopeful about what school could — and should — be. Finn describes how many working-class children are offered what he calls a “domesticating” literacy: a functional, compliant form of reading and writing meant more to prepare them for routine labor than to help them wield power or autonomy.

Quote #1: “Working-class schools… often teach compliance, not citizenship; they prepare children for routine labor rather than for leadership, creativity, or autonomy.”

In this moment I nodded hard — I’ve seen how some schools treat reading and writing like tasks to check off, rather than chances to think, question, and push back. It reminds me of times when I was told to “just follow the directions” rather than explore what I felt I needed to express. Reading this made me want more for students: not just to read and write, but to use those skills to understand the world and speak for themselves.

Quote #2: “Literacy-with-an-attitude… is not a gift, but a right of citizenship — a means for working-class and poor children to claim their civil, political, and social powers.”

This idea struck me as powerful because it frames literacy as more than schoolwork. It’s about dignity and agency. It makes clear that education shouldn’t just reproduce class divisions — instead, it should equip all students to understand their world and assert a voice in it. I think about what it could mean if more of my peers had been taught with that mindset.

Quote #3: “Where children are taught merely to sit still and listen, we reproduce a dehumanizing social order — but when we teach children to think, question, and use language to act on their own interests, we build a foundation for justice and self-determination.” 

When I read this, I couldn’t help but remember times when school felt like a cage: I was meant to absorb, not challenge; to be quiet, not curious. That approach doesn’t teach you to engage — it teaches you to obey. But when teachers encourage questioning, when writing assignments invite personal meaning, that’s when something real — and dangerous, in the good way — begins: students become thinkers, critics, agents.

Overall, this reading rocked my assumptions about what “literacy” means. If we settle for teaching only functional reading and writing, we risk training students to fit into a social order rather than to change it. But when we teach with an attitude — teaching powerful literacy — we give them tools to understand, challenge, and reshape their world. And honestly, that’s the kind of school I want us to build.