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LITERACY WITH AN ATTITUDE

Literacy Withan Attitude

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1450-Invention of the Printing press

Increase in books =increase in self-taughtliteracy

By 1600s 1 of 10 farmers couldread(below working class)

only read political/religiouspropoganda,astrology, advice,

songs, pleasureFear causes government to create lawsregulated printed material

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Late 1700s European working class begin to fight at the

beginning of the Industrial Revolution

Begin to form small groups to shareideas/philosophies of the common manThomas Paines Rights of Man very influential of

thoughts and ideasInteresting group dynamics where all members of thegroup have a voice regardless of where they areranked in societyBegin to discover that something was wrong with theway society was organized

Key thought How could the working man work somuch and provide so littleGovernment hears of the ideas and threatens theworking class and poor of charges of treason if the

working/poor classes rebel

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London Corresponding SocietyMost Popular Group

Group ideas begin to shift and change focusUnity is the themeMain objective of meeting was to reflect on society and theirplace in it

Questioning authority and exercising power are encouragedLearned what others were thinking

(discussed/evaluated/new ideas)Author indicates a major difference in attitude between themand the LADs, STEPPERS, SULKERSMeetings were designed for attitudes of critical agents whorecognized the potential power of literacy combined with civic

courage

Results of increased Literacy

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Still late 1700s,Early 1800s

British Government fearful make

example of LCS and put them on trialfor a salacious chargeScares many groups and they begin todisband because of the potentialconsequences being levied by thegovernmentOpposite propaganda begins to

circulate to discredit Paine's ideas &character after he driven to exile by thegovernment

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New Leaders Emerge

Quaker Hanna More

Organized Sunday schools where poor children were taught to readProponents viewed it as turning the poor to fanaticsviewed as a threat to political stability

She viewed it as training the lower class in habits of industry, new meansof regulation and discipline, new way to shape character of people

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Wrote book New Appropriate Systems of Education for Laboring PeoplePremise of the book, prosperity depends on good habits, religious & moralinstruction of laboring people Protect kids by not exposing them to the vices of lifeSociety Prospers by prevention of crime, literate peopleDiscovered strong relationship between criminal activity/literacy

Imposed a regime of constant surveillance of the youth through the educationof kids by kidsProved to be affordable, efficient, purposefulBelieved literacy is only dangerous when used to further working class interestsIntroduced new idea that schooling could be used to get control of poor children,turn working class literacy in to a tool to protect the status quo

Firmly believed that literacy could domesticate the poor rather than rile them up

Patrick Colquhoun

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Mid 1800s

Church schools invented to steer poor from radical ideas

Literate working class fuels IndustrializationChildren begin to receive proper reading/writing educationLiterature begins to evolve from political/educational to fiction/sensationBeginning of commercial entertainment/information industry

Bedrock of class relations is literacy(does it liberate or domesticateEducation is never neutralBelief that there will always be a struggle against ideas that threatenpolitical or economic privilege

Closing

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REFERENCE

FINN, P.(2009). Literacy With An Attitude. StateAlbany, NY. University of New York Press.