Debiting From Our Students' "Funds of Knowledge" Accounts

Our students bring with them a wealth of knowledge before they even step foot into our classrooms. They've been learning since Day 1 how to communicate with others, how to get their needs and desires met, how to resolve conflict, how to reason, how cause and effect works, how the natural world operates on a day-to-day basis, how to learn from what others model for them, and how they must survive all the events and interactions with various types of people in between getting up and going to bed each day. In addition to this, they have learned (or are continuing to learn) the rites, the customs, the idiosyncracies of the language, the mores of their family and of their culture, neighborhood, and communities. All of these are learned experiences which helps them to identify themselves, but it's more than that. It's what Norma Gonzalez, Ellen McIntyre, and Ann Rosebery call "Funds of Knowledge" (2001). These are the base knowledge from which children derive their learning. Everything that they attempt to learn in school is compared to what they already know within the "Funds of Knowledge" from outside of the classroom. Once teachers comprehend that their students all have savings within their own unique "Funds of Knowledge" account, then the real, relatable teaching can begin, because "children learn best when abstract principles are conveyed to them in terms that reflect their own knowledge base" (McIntyre, et al, 2001). We have to stop underestimating what our students are capable of knowing and learning, and break away from the one-size-fits-all instructional routine of yester-years gone by, and start debiting from the expansive wealth that they have already accumulated outside of school to relate what we are teaching them inside the classroom.

It all starts with getting to know each student and the communities from which s/he interacts in, and it also requires the teacher to take a hard look at his/her own "Funds of Knowledge" account, and that of the school's prescribed curriculum to manage those "account balances". Are they in the red and the students' accounts in the black? Then proceed to debit from the students' accounts--those experiences and the knowledge that they have already acquired out in the field of life. Make the subjects that must be taught relatable to them. This is how you debit from their "Funds of Knowledge" accounts, and it will make for a much richer learning experience for both teacher and students alike.