Week 7: Literacy Defined

My daughter, Adelina, is ten months old. She has had a book in her hand as soon as she could hold one and has been turning the page on command for about three months now. Her parents enjoy reading and are college-educated. Does this guarantee that she will be literate? Not exactly. Does this mean that she has a better shot than a student who grows up in a home without dozens of books to read with parents that don’t/can’t spend time reading with them? Probably. Traditionally, literacy means the ability to read written language. But there are numerous types of literacy, many of which the “illiterate” are fluent.

My paternal grandmother was illiterate, as in she could not read or write, not even her name. She was born and raised in Texas but never went to school. She worked at a very young age and the last job she held, was at the dry cleaners. She would professionally starch and iron clothes making the most casual of denim look sharp as hell. She could talk to you all day about the “right” way to make tamales. You wouldn’t know she had any kind of educational shortcomings unless you asked her to sign her name.

I found the history of literacy at the beginning of “Blinded by the Letter” particularly fascinating. It made me think about what my grandmother would have felt around the people she encountered at the mission neighborhood she lived in. Did people think that she “lacked intelligence and humanity”? (Johnson-Eilola and Wysocki 725) She certainly was literate in many other regards.

Literacy is not black and white. It is not something that is attained or not attained, but rather something that is experienced through us, “moving through [information]and making and changing conscious constructions as we go” (Johnson-Eilola and Wysocki 735). This idea while intriguing, leads me to our roles as teachers. What does this mean that we should do or not do in the classroom to lead our students to the desired academic communities that we are already apart of?

According to Mina Shaughnessy, we must change ourselves. We must decide that “teaching them to write well is not only suitable but challenging work for those who would be teachers and scholars in a democracy” (297). I’m not so sure that I’m ready to “dive in”, though I’d like to think that I’m close! Kathleen Blake Yancey has an idea that I think could solve a big problem in college-completion: the idea that FYC is used as a gateway rather than a gatekeeper will perhaps change the way that many teachers are teaching. If our goal was to focus on the students that need the most assistance and do all in our power to help them succeed at writing, this could give them the confidence and ability to continue through all four years of college.