Critical Literacy

Au's piece brings up some interesting ideas that I had connected with schools but not exactly with literacy directly. While I realize school in general perpetuates mainstream culture and uses those same values to determine curriculum, I had not necessarily connected it to literacy. My favorite part of this article is when Au is discussing Paulo Freire's notion of "critical literacy" and I think he's spot on here. Being literate is not simply being able to read the classics, or understand cultural references, it is transformative. Think about how many ideas you can access through reading. Life changing ideas. Critical literacy focuses on literacy in schools as something that helps children understand an aspect where society is failing and working to change it, and isn't that what we want for our students? I think it's probably the ultimate teacher fantasy, that all of our students go out and change the world. Well, that why teaching critical literacy is so important because it arms them with the skills to do just that.