Working Class Literacy Redux

In an earlier post I had directed my readers to a recent article by Jonathan Rose on working class literacy. Many years ago in grad school I had known a Jonathan Rose and retain fond memories of him. As a young man he was brilliant, gentlemanly, soft spoken, and always considerate of those around him; quite a contrast to our “committed” contemporaries who delighted in outrageous statements and behavior. Later, as we dispersed to teaching and research appointments around the country I lost track of Jon. His areas of specialization and mine took us in different directions intellectually and to different regions of the country. I was delighted to learn that the author of the article I so much admired was indeed, as a mutual friend put it, “our Jon” and that he has had a very distinguished academic career. Check out his article and, more importantly, take a gander at this book. It addresses an immensely important issue in modern British intellectual discourse and shows the extent to which left-wing attitudes have been based in recent decades upon a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature and cultural capacities of the poor and working classes – the very people that the left claims to represent. It is an important book, and one that has been widely recognized as such. Check it out!