Teacher resources and readings• ClassMatters:Cross-ClassAllianceBuildingforMiddle-

ClassActivists;Betsy Leondar-Wright

• We’reErasingPrejudiceforGood;ETFO

• TheBetrayalofWork;Beth Shulman

• WhereWeStand:ClassMatters;bell hooks

• RethinkingOurClassroomsTeachingforEquityandSocial

Justice–Volume1;Bill Bigelow, Stan Karp, Wayne Au

• ThroughtheEyesofWorkersofColour:LinkingStruggles

ForSocialJustice;Salome Lukas and Judy Vashti Persad

• TheFutureWeWant:buildinganinclusivecurriculum;

Peel District School Board

• OpenMindstoEquality:ASourcebookofLearning

ActivitiestoPromoteRace,Sex,Class,andAgeEquity;

Nancy Schneidewind

• NickelandDimed:On(Not)GettingByinAmerica;

Barbara Ehrenreich

• ChallengingClassBias;Toronto District School Board

WebsiTes• www.classactionnet.org

• www.canadians.org

• www.clc-ctc.ca

• www.campaign2000.ca

• www.rethinkingschools.org

Source: ChallengingClassBiasGrades7–12, Toronto District

School Board, 2005.

Suite 1000, 480 University Avenue

Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1V2

Telephone: 416-962-3836 • Toll-free 1-888-838-3836

Fax: 416-642-2424

www.etfo.ca

“Poverty is the worst form of violence”—Mahatma Gandhi

This pamphlet was created to assist in

building an increased understanding and

awareness of issues that relate to socio-

economic class, class bias, and classism.

be prepared tochallenge classism.

Commitments we can make and/or actions we can take to challenge and confront classism

Personal level• Educate yourself and others around class issues by facing

your own assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs about people from different socio-economic background.

• Acknowledge that parents from poor and working class families value education.

• Recognize that there are barriers to parental involvement in their child’s education that include work schedules, availability of childcare, and fluency in English.

School level• Use material to promote critical thinking about class issues

and implement strategies to detect class bias in literature.• Re-evaluate school practices that may exclude some students,

due to costs associated with participating in extra-curricular activities, special events, or other “essential” materials.

Societal level • Lobby government to eliminate child poverty in Canada• Advocate and lobby for increased minimum wage and

improved access to affordable childcare• Demand basic job benefits of health care, sick pay, disability

pay, paid vacation, and retirement for all workers.

Building understanding about issues of classism

• Class consists of a large group of people who share a similar economic and/or social position based on their income, wealth, property ownership, job status, education, skills, or power in the economic and political spheres.

• Class bias is an attitude that leads to discrimination based on an individual’s or group’s education, occupation, income, wealth, and/or economic means.

• Classism is a set of personal and systemic assumptions, beliefs, attitudes, and practices that often discriminate against persons according to their socio-economic status. It includes differential treatment based on social class, or perceived social class.

• There is a powerful intersection between race, class, and poverty.

• Internal biases can influence our classroom and school environments. We must examine our own (often unconscious) values and assumptions about people around all issues of class and classism.

Our school systems and wider society might perpetuate class bias with the assumptions that:

a. Children from poor and working class or immigrant families who do well in school are viewed as the exception and not the rule;

b. All students can afford to participate in extra-curricular activities, purchase additional school supplies, or pay field trip fees;

c. Middle and upper class students will continue their education beyond high school, while poor and working class students are not interested in post-secondary education;

d. Intellectual work is inherently superior to physical labour and therefore deserves better economic and political rewards.

Books to start/support discussion of classism

Primary

• AChairForMyMother;Vera B. Williams

• PEPPETheLamplighter;Elisa Bartone

• BytheDawn’sEarlyLight;Karen Ackerman

• LaborDay;Mir Tamim Ansary

• Strike!;Maureen Bayless

• TheTableWhereRichPeopleSit;Byrd Baylor

• ADay’sWork;Eve Bunting

• December;Eve Bunting

• SmokyNight;Eve Bunting

• SamandtheLuckyMoney;Karen Chinn

• Gettin’ThroughThursday;Melrose Cooper

• RedParkaMary;Peter Eyvindson

• AShelterInOurCar;Monica Gunning

• TheCardboardShackBeneaththeBridge;Tim Huff

• TightTimes;Barbara Shook Hazen

• Home:ACollectionofThirtyDistinguishedAuthors

JuniOr

• SomethingBeautiful;Sharon Denis Wyeth

• GhostTrain;Paul Yee

• TheStreetsAreFree;Kurusa

• Coolies;Yin

• FireattheTriangleFactory;Holly Littlefield

• Si,SePuede!=Yes,WeCan!;Diana Cohn

• TheCarpetBoy’sGift;Pegi Deitz Shea

• TheFirstDayinGrapes;L. King Perez

• BoyoftheDeeps;Ian Wallace

• FlyAwayHome;Eve Bunting

• WorkSong;Gary Paulsen

• HarvestingHope:TheStoryofCesarChavez;Kathleen Krull

intermediate

• LookingForX;Deborah Ellis

• ManiacMagee;Jerry Spinelli

• TheWorstofTimes;James Lincoln Collier

• WorkingImagesofCanadianLabour;Laszio Barna

• IqbalMasihandtheCrusadersAgainstChildSlavery;

Susan Kuklin

• CallMeRuth;Marilyn Sachs

• RigorbertoMenchu:DefendingHumanRightsin

Guatemala;Michael Silverstone

• FlyingGeese;Barbara Haworth-Attard

• Stitches;Glen Huser

“Canadiansmightseetheirsocietyas‘classless’becausethevastmajorityofpersonstheyinteract

witharemembersofthemiddleclass,therefore,viewingandvaluingitas‘normal’andignoringboth

extremesofthepoorandtherich.Thelargerthemiddleclass,thelessvisibletheextremes.”

—John hofley, 1971

be prepared to challenge classism.