“The Literacy Letters”

Linda Brodkey: It’s usually fun to read someone else’s letters, but these particular letters are mostly stilted attempts at communication because of the real class differences between the correspondents. Given our current class-based educational system, to imagine an equal playing field between these two sets of correspondents is unrealistic.

The idea of “de-schooling” society was a fringe idea in the sixties, the notion that to change the status between teachers and students would require revamping our entire educational system—really the entire class system. We would all be simultaneously and perpetually teachers and students. Learning for learning’s sake. Two possibilities for achieving this: (1) A total upheaval of our social, economic, and political systems, which probably isn’t going to happen for a variety of reasons. (2) A less drastic attempt by individuals to consciously try to create classless relationships. Brodkey’s experiment seemed more like an experiment than a realistic attempt to do this because she did not set out to create the conditions for a level playing field between the correspondents. This would have required all participants to buy in to the idea and engage in “the struggle.” I can already hear the arguments against this “hippy-dippy” experiment.

Nonetheless, it would be interesting to see a different setup: maybe face-to-face exchanges before beginning the letter-writing. Also, the non-teachers would need to have more equal footing with the teachers. A panel given by each “side” that gives background on the facts of their lives as a way to allow each side to be both students and teachers with expert knowledge? A roundtable discussion?

Brodkey has an interesting idea. I’d like to know more about people’s attempts at classless societies.