Reading, Writing and Resistance: Adolescence and Labor in a Junior High School PDF
Preview Reading, Writing and Resistance: Adolescence and Labor in a Junior High School
ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: THE ADOLESCENT Volume 7 READING, WRITING AND RESISTANCE READING, WRITING AND RESISTANCE Adolescence and Labor in a Junior High School ROBERT B. EVERHART First published in 1983 by Routledge & Kegan Paul plc This edition first published in 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1983 Robert B. Everhart All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. ISBN: 978-1-032-37655-4 (Set) ISBN: 978-1-032-38055-1 (Volume 7) (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-38062-9 (Volume 7) (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-34330-1 (Volume 7) (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003343301 Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace. Reading, writing and resistance Adolescence and labor in a junior high school Robert R Everhart Routledge & Kegan Paul Boston, London, Melbourne and Henley First published in 1983 by Routledge & Kegan Paul pic 9 Park Street, Boston, Mass. 02108, USA, 296 Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park, Melbourne 3206, Australia, 39 Store Street, London WC1E 7DD, and Broadway House, Newtown Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG91EN Set in Linotron 202 Times, 10 on 12pt by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Printed in the United States of America Copy right ©RobertB. Everhart, 1983 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Everhart, Robert B. Reading, writing, and resistance. (Critical social thought) Includes bibliographical references. I. School environment- United States. 2. Junior high school students - United States - Conduct of life. 3. Adolescence. 4. Community and school - United States. 5. Education - Economic aspects - United States. I. Title. II. Series. LC210.5.E94 1983 373.18 82-25068 ISBN 0-7100-9450-7 Contents Series editor's preface vii Author's preface xv 1 Introduction 1 The junior high school 2 Related studies 5 Perspective for the book 16 Organization of the book 23 2 The community and the school 26 The community 26 The Jefferson School District 30 Harold Spencer Junior High 31 Summary 39 3 The classroom world 42 Time in class 43 Classroom demands 52 Students and classroom life 65 Summary and conclusions 84 4 The world of Don's group 91 The people 92 Activities and perspectives 95 Seventh grade 95 Eighth grade 112 Summary and conclusions 123 V Reading, writing and resistance 5 The world of Chris's group 130 The people 130 Activities and perspectives 133 Seventh grade 133 Eighth grade 150 Summary and conclusions 157 6 'What did you do in English today?' 'Nothing, just goofed off 165 The students' map of the school 165 The social context of goofing off 170 Ways to goof off 177 Summary and conclusions 192 7 Student 'power' 196 Classroom strategies 197 Beating the system 211 Skipping 218 Summary and conclusions 226 8 Summary and conclusions 231 Structural attributes of the student role 234 The derivation of meaning within structure 243 The student world and what is learned in school 247 Toward rethinking schooling and youth 251 Appendix A Lesson plans 267 Appendix B Methodology 276 Notes 290 Name index 299 Subject index 300 VI Series editor's preface Within the last decade, the analysis of what schools contribute to the social reproduction of an unequal society has progressed at an exceptional pace. Early work was content to debunk liberal assump- tions that schools necessarily led to widespread class, gender, and race mobility. Later investigations attempted to show how our educational system, through its hidden curriculum, 'produced' people who ultimately and relatively unquestioningly fit into the social division of labor outside the school.1 While establishing an important grounding for our further understanding of the connec- tions between schooling and the larger society, we now know these investigations had a number of conceptual and political problems and were rather mechanistic, assuming that there was a direct correspondence between culture and consciousness, on the one hand, and the inexorable power and needs of capitalism, on the other.2 The problems with this research on education and social repro- duction actually mirrored a debate that was being carried on in the wider community of people who were concerned with the issue of reproduction. Here the major question was 'What is the rela- tionship "between" base and superstructure?' Could the character- istics, discourse, and activity of people and institutions be easily read off against the needs of an economy? The debate still rages over how one answers these questions and indeed over whether they are the correct questions.3 One thing that has arisen out of the discussions, however, is the recognition of the utter importance of the problem of culture, of the need to understand the 'relative autonomy' of culture - in particular the self-formative cultural production engaged in by classed, raced, and gendered actors. This is the issue that Everhart focuses on. His book is a study of vii
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