Neo what?

Imagine the school you send your child to. Can you picture it? Children seated in neat little rows, learning things that they will need to help them succeed in the real world. Becoming literate individuals, making life long friends, and gaining a first rate education. But what is it that they are really learning and who is determining what it is that our children need to know for the real world?

Most of our schooling is focused on state exams. Schools are pressured to meet particular goals and are required to have each student pass the state exams. In some schools, upwards of 13 weeks of test prep occurs during school hours. That's more than 3 months of school devoted to the state tests. Who determines this? Why are we working towards meeting the demands of state tests?

Though my recent research on the topic, I've come across Neoliberalism. Through the beliefs of Neoliberals, there is a desire to have what is public, privatized. They want to see public education done away with. But what does this mean for our children? Public schools are forced to meet certain standards set by the state exams. These exams determine how much state funding schools receive. We are seeing schools that are not meeting the standards classified as failing schools. These failing schools are often shut down and then reopened as charter schools or other privately operated schools. Many of these schools that are failing are in locations with a high concentration of African Americans and Latinos, or in an impoverished area. Things for these students don't get better when a charter school is opened or a private school. These schools are highly competitive and pricey. These students are put into schools that are failing, with limited resources. These schools are over crowded and they are still being put through strict, direct instruction leading up to taking state exams.

I came across another term in my research this week. This was Neoconservatism. Even though neoconservatists are on the opposite end of the spectrum as neolibertarians, their beliefs are not making matters better for our students. Neoconservatists want to see education return back to what it traditionally was. They want to reduce what students are learning. Many Neoconservatists support Charter schools and Private schools because they can follow a curriculum that does not have to meet the standards of the state. These schools can limit or restrict what information their students learn. One example of such a restrict was teaching students about how the United States was racist. Parts of Martin Luther King's, "I have a dream" speech was cut out to keep all inferences of the United States being racist.

This current shift in the education system in the United States is one that angers me and will be extremely interesting to watch progress through the next few years. There are major changes in need of occurring and I'm not sure where these changes are going to take place.

Multiple Literacies

"The concept of multiple literacies provides an analytic heuristic with which to consider the rande of literacy practices in which ELLs engage across contexts in different languages and various modalities," (p.337, Haneda). As an educator we need to remember that our students whom speak multiple languages have a wide range of literacies which they engage in outside of school. We also need to remember that the literacy practices from range from one culture to another. 


I think it is important to provide children the opportunity to use their first language in school as well as the other languages that they are learning. It can be frustrating only be allowed to use English in school when you are not fluent in its uses or are struggling with the different concepts. I believe that for older students, we could give them an opportunity to create a blog in school. This can be done in which ever language they would like to use. By blogging about particular topics or freely, students can practice using their language. 


"There are yet other children who fail to become fully literate in either first language or second language," (p337, Haneda). How can we expect children to be literate in English when they have yet to master their native language? For this reason we can not ban use of their native language in school. Their are skills that these children need to learn in their first language before we can expect them to comprehend and be successful using a second language, especially when the rules of a second language can be very different and challenging to master. 


Some children receive extra support outside of class from parents, siblings, and extended family. I think that by creating a support system for ELL students they could become more successful. Not all students have the support system outside of school. Perhaps through the use of peer mentoring or after school activities, students would receive extra help that they need. 


Learning experiences need to be personally relevant to students. In order to make sure that students are connected with the school work they are doing, we need to provide them with things that are of interest to them. I think that continually taking inventory of your students interests, likes, and dislikes will make this a lot easier to do. This will make selecting works of literature for your students to read a more rewarding process. Students want to read about things that interest them. It is important for them to read many other things as well, but this will help them foster literacy in a way that captivates them and motivates them. 


I also want to be able to encourage my students to share their literacy with the class. By this I mean, tell stories or write poems in their native language. Through the use of short presentations students will be able to practice their literacy skills and feel confident do so. They should feel safe in their environment so that they will feel comfortable opening up and expressing themselves. Our students should want to share their lives with us. 

Little Known Facts

In E.D. Hirsch Jr's article Literacy and Cultural Literacy, he states that, "Cultural literacy lies above the everyday levels of knowledge that everyone possesses and below the expert level known only to specialists. It is that middle ground of cultural knowledge possessed by the 'common reader'... " (p. 19). The question lies as to what knowledge is considered cultural literacy? 

Hirsch created a list of "What Literate Americans Know". His list includes things geographical items such as The Gulf of Mexico, Harlem NY, and Hollywood CA. It includes such people as Hitler, Alfred Hitchcock, Herbert Hoover, and Mao Tse-tung. Hirsch included many famous works of literature like Mary Had a Little Lamb, Pride and Prejudice, and Hamlet. He has created a list of "scientific" words that a literate person should know. These are items such as hemoglobin, heterogeneity, mass, mammal, and the quadratic equation. 

If I were to create my own list of what a literate American knows you would find it would look like this: 

• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
• We Didn't Start The Fire by Billy Joel (and can identify the places, events, and people in this song).
• The chromosomal difference between a male and a female human (You'd be surprised how many of my friends can't tell you this!)
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Michael Jackson
• Osama Bin Ladin 
• Ground Zero
• The Itzy Bitsy Spider
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Shakespeare
• Times Square
• Japan
• Natural Disaster

As I was reading through Hirsch's list of "What Literate Americans Know", I found myself thinking of all the nights my friends and I sit at trivia night. I began to wonder if the questions being asked could be considered what literate Americans know? Some of the questions are things that everyone would know. Most questions are not at the level of an expert. I challenge you to go to a trivia night and see what you know. Are you a literate American?