Literacy with an Attitude

QUOTES/CONNECTIONS

     "The status quo is the status quo because people who have the power to make changes are comfortable with the way things are. It takes energy to make changes, and the energy must come from the people who will benefit from the change. But the working class does not get powerful literacy, and powerful literacy is necessary for the struggle. How can the cycle be broken?"

     -- After reading this quote I immediately thought of Johnson. In his piece Privilige, Power, and Difference he speaks out about everyone coming together to make the difference. The people with the privilige and power are the people who can truly make a difference; however, thes people can sometimes forget about the issues that are at hand because they are not directly affected by them. a quote from his piece better explains this...
     
       "And if people in priviliged groups don't include themseleves in the solution, the default is to leave it to blacks and women and Asians, Latinos, Native Americans. lesbians, gay men, and the lower and working classes to do it on their own, because they don't have the power to changed entrenched systems of privilege by themseleves. If they could do that, there wouldn't be this problem in the first place."

Another connection I made through this piece was by reading this quote...
     "Teachers who see themselves as allies of their working-class students can help their students see that literacy and school knowledge could be a potent weapon in their struggle for a better deal by connecting school knowledge with the reality of working-class students' lives."

  --With this quote I made a connection to Delpit. The rules and codes of power fit in perfectly with this statement. The teachers help the students understand how important literacy is because it will only help them in the future, and it will also help them fit into society. Delpit says that we must learn to rules and codes of power if we want to succeed in this society.

DELPITS 5 ASPECTS OF POWER:
1.Issues of power are enarced in classrooms.
2.There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a "culture of power"
3.The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culutre of those who have power.
4.If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes aquiring power easier.
5.Those with power are frequently least aware of-or atleast wiling to acknowledge its existence. Those with less power are often more aware of its existence.