supported by radio and television advertisements selling phonetic drills that supposedly
boost reading scores. Many of us remember going to schools where a major activity was re-
citing spelling lists or the multiplication tables.
Linda Christensen, a high school English teacher whom we met in chapter 6, has a signifi-
cantly different view. InReading, Writing and Rising Up(2000), a collection of writings by her-
self and her students, Christensen discusses literacy as part of community building in the
classroom and the struggle for social justice in the broader society. Christensen introduces
her students to the power of language as a form of creative expression that allows them to
discover themselves and share with others. But it is also vital for shaping, critiquing, and
communicating ideas, and it empowers them, as global citizens, to influence and reshape the
world. In Christensen’s classroom, literacy means expression, communication, and social
transformation. Her vision of literacy reminds me of a labor union song from the 1913 textile
workers’ strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. As young women marched in protest against
low wages, long hours, and unfair working conditions, they demanded “bread and roses”—
higher pay and decent living conditions (bread) and an opportunity to experience the joy
and beauty of life (roses). In Christensen’s classrooms, students read, write, and speak for
both “bread and roses.”
Paulo Freire, whose philosophy of education was introduced in chapter 1, argues that lit-
eracy should not be viewed as a technical skill, but as a necessary action for freedom (Freire
& Macedo, 1987). According to Freire,critical literacyrequires reading and understanding
both theworldand thewordso that people have the ability to use words to change the
world. He feels that interest in and the ability to “read the world” naturally precedes the abil-
ity to “read the word.” Based on his perspective, in order to enhance traditional “pen-and-
paper” literacy, teachers must engage students as activists.
As a high school social studies teacher committed to promoting this kind of critical liter-
acy, I helped students in my government classes organize a club to encourage student politi-
cal activism. The club sponsored speakers on controversial topics such as abortion rights
and apartheid, lobbied government agencies for increased school funding, and participated
in political rallies. As these students read the world, they were forced by the momentum of
their actions to improve their ability to read the word. Members researched issues and
wrote reports, speeches, press releases, leaflets, and opinion essays for newspapers. They
created posters, buttons, political cartoons, charts, and graphs, and they edited video re-
ports on their activities.
A similar approach to teaching and literacy has found a powerful advocate in Robert Mos-
es, a mathematics teacher who is also a civil rights activist. According to Moses (1994), “The
main goal of the Algebra Project is to impact the struggle for citizenship and equality by assist-
ing students in inner city and rural areas to achieve mathematics literacy. Higher order think-
ing and problem solving skills are necessary for entry into the economic mainstream....With-
out these skills children will be tracked into an economic underclass.”
The Algebra Project (Moses & Cobb, 2001) helps students build an understanding of math-
ematical concepts through a five-step process that moves them from familiar concrete expe-
riences (reading the world) to abstract mathematics (reading the word).
- Students participate in aphysical experience,such as a trip, in which they see examples
of what they are studying (e.g., arches, geometric shapes, suspension bridges). - Following the trip, students drawpictorial representationsor construct models of what
they have observed. - Next, they discuss and write about the event in their everyday dialect or intuitive lan-
guage. Moses calls this stage “People Talk.”
LITERACY 183