Literacy With an Attitude

 Reading this text made me reflect back on my own experience in school, and which one of the schools mentioned most resembled my own. I think my own school in particular is interesting because there was a mix of all of these different examples, with the middle-class and upper class schools resembling mine the most, but the other two were also represented. The most significant thing I remember was doing a lot of projects and creative assignments. Most of my teachers would have us do something creative for each unit/lesson we did in class. Obviously some classes were different, but most of them were like this. I personally didn’t like this very much, as I was never a very creative kid, but most of the other students did. Another example I can think of that ties back to this text is my We The People class my freshman year of high school. This was an optional class in American government, as it was very fast-paced, and at the end of the year we would compete against other schools in a debate-style competition. The class was intended for high school seniors, and we were the only school in the country to compete as freshmen. Obviously we did not win, but we were closer to the top than the bottom. I look back on this and realize that our school had very high expectations for us and the class was fast-paced, something the text discusses in the more affluent schools, something my school and town were. My school also encouraged us to think about abstract ideas and discuss current events. In that government class and in history classes especially, current issues were almost built into the class and what the teacher taught us. Even in my service learning, I see the way that the teachers treat students is different. In the school I am volunteering at, the teachers are more direct and will raise their voices, something my teachers would rarely ever do.