Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on class structure to complement another post, seven below this, on class consciousness. My guess? This stuff wouldn’t fly in most schools and school districts. We Americans actually believe all the nonsense we tell ourselves about opportunity and the American meritocracy; we fancy ourselves above or immune to class distinctions.

I have bad news: we’re not. I think poor kids have a right to know that, and I think teachers have a moral and intellectual obligation to help students understand the way the edifice of class circumscribes students’ lives.

Just sayin,.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

After last night, I can’t think of a better time to post this Cultural Literacy the concept of bread and circuses. The term comes from ancient Rome, as I suspect most people know; it was meant, originally, as a plaint against the declining heroism of the Roman people, who were willing to exchange the Roman Republic for the Roman Empire–to forego the work of maintaining a republic for the spectacle, noise, and distraction of the empire’s conquests and programs–free bread among them–designed to control the populace.

In the context of current American politics, I suppose a teacher could contextualize this to describe how Americans were willing to sacrifice intellect and reason for emotion and nonsense.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.