Teaching Clothes, Class, Consumption through Writing

Linda Christensen gets students to read and write critically about clothes, class, and consumption in Can’t Buy Me Love: Teaching about clothes, class, and consumption:

“I realized when I first stumbled on this writing assignment that I touched a place of pain and shame that needed to be explored more fully. Students knew they hurt, but they didn’t have a social critique to help them understand their humiliation. They internalized the shame of poverty and blamed themselves or their families instead of criticizing a society that places more value on what we own than on our capacity for compassion or good work. In every lesson I construct, I want to puncture holes in the myths that make my students feel shame and doubt about themselves and their families.”

Read the rest: Rethinking Schools, Summer 2007