empowering education

something that’s already surfaced in a couple of my classes this quarter is this idea of empowering education.  

for example, let’s say i’m teaching at a low-income high school, and 20 of my 30 students are reading at a 6th grade level.  should i:

a) push them to try and read hemingway, o’connor, and shakespeare?
b) give them comic books?  

option a is the kind of stuff that’ll prepare someone for college. option b is traditionally not. but here’s the rub: the students will actually engage with the comic books because it’s interesting and at their reading level. the visuals help their comprehension and they’re more likely to persist with something when they experience success.  there’s not a lot of success to be experienced by these students when they’re asked to stomach the western canon 

i definitely don’t know the answer to this question.  

yes, i’m working with special ed kids, and the odds are already stacked against them. but consider this: when i interviewed someone at the administrative level of special ed services for the bellevue school district last week, he reported to me a ridiculous number of their special ed kids go to college. compare that to the school i taught at last spring, where they were happy to simply graduate a school-record six students from their program, none of whom were on their way to college. eastside kids going to college, dirty-south kids on their way to low-wage work. that just ain’t right.  

schools have the power to either reproduce social inequities or resist ‘em by churning out empowered underprivileged youth. but i’m not sure if there’s much empowering that can come from a dumbed down curriculum.