nds of “graduates”:
1) Working-class men and women who have the understanding and motivation to participate in collective action to improve the lot of the working class (in unions, for example)
2) organic intellectuals who are able to get a deep understanding of socialist theory and still talk to workers in a language they can understand
3 ) a particular kind of border crosser—one who will never cross a picket line or become a follower of Ayn Rand.
Critical literacy educators provide working-class students with a new kind of motivation to acquire the language and communication skills and the knowledge that will make them powerful members of a powerful working class. That is what critical literacy is all about. I believe students in Socialist Sunday schools would have done quite well on standardized academic achievement tests if they had them back then.
Patrick J. Finn
Patrick J. Finn is Associate Professor Emeritus of Education at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York and the author of Literary with an Attitude:Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest.