Chapter 1) “‘Good students’ were obedient students, students who followed orders. The assignments were so easy that all obedient students got good grades, but I gave plenty of bad grades to students who were not obedient, who did not do their assignments. Obedient students were not kept in from recess, but most days there were one or two disobedient students kept in from recess. Obedient students' parents were not called up to school, but on one or two mornings a week I met a parent of a disobedient student who had been summoned to school at 8:30 A.M before classes began. Obedient students did not get suspended, but disobedient students were suspended at my request at the rate of about one a semester.” (Pg. 4)
Should disobedience = bad grades and suspension, or are these students disobeying because they are bored or unchallenged in class. Is it really disobedience or is it more relative to an outstanding issue?
Chapter 2) “The working-class children were learning to follow directions and do mechanical, low-paying work, but at the same time they were learning to resist authority in ways sanctioned by their community.
The middle-class children were learning to follow orders and do the mental work that keeps society producing and running smoothly. They were learning that if they cooperated they would have the rewards that well-paid, middle-class work makes possible outside the workplace. The affluent professional children were learning to create products and art, "symbolic capital," and at the same time they were learning to find rewards in work itself and to negotiate from a powerful position with those (the executive elite) who make the final decisions on how real capital is allocated. The executive elite children? They were learning to be masters of the universe.” 20
This quote, while lengthy, perfectly sums up the points that Finn is trying to make through Avery’s research, and really opens our eyes to education differences not as a issue of race, but as an issue of socioeconomic status as well. It also proves the point that even though these schools may use the same books, these children are receiving VERY different educations.
Chapter 14) “This seems as if it should be easy enough to handle. If your students are oppressed, stop oppressing them. Just go in tomorrow and say, "You decide what we'll learn, how we'll learn it, and how grades will be determined. I am no longer your oppressor." Unfortunately, this approach is tried with some regularity by new teachers, followed uniformly by one of Willis's "horrific breakdowns."”(p. 174)
This quote ties into the action piece more than the other chapters, and I wish is was this easy to end oppression.
Finn argues that inequality in education does not always have to do with race, but also socioeconomic backgrounds in addition to different groups of students receiving different types and quality of education.
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