To be completely honest, I really didn’t think if there was a need to interpret the word “literacy” to such detailed level as we’ve done in our classes. Until I took Ed140, “literacy” simply meant “ability to read and write,” and that was as much as I needed to know. (Maybe it’s even more so because of I’m an Engineering major.) The first few lectures of the class left me wondering; “is it really necessary to study the word so elaborately?”
Nevertheless, being in the class had made me think about literacy more and more. I’d often find myself thinking about how things would have been different if the concept of literacy had gone missing.
At the volunteering site, I was “supervising” kids in the computer room. One of the younger boys was having trouble loading a computer game. I helped him load the game, then the instructions screen loaded. The page had basic explanations about how to control, yet the boy kept asking, “how do I play? How do I play?” That’s when it struck me – some of the kids can’t read yet… Then I started to wonder… What if these kids don’t learn to read? How would they ever learn the stuff I am learning in college? Will these kids grow up to be successful professionals without being educated? Will they be able to fit in to a society?
I am a strong believer of education. I think that learning is one of the most exciting abilities that we humans have. But how much could I have possibly learned without learning “literacy” first?
Maybe all the detailed analysis about “literacy” was done by those who recognized the importance of it – something I didn’t even really care about until this posting… Now I feel like I’ve just taken my first baby step of realizing that literacy IS important.
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I'm glad that you get to take a humanities class that actually shows you what literacy actually means.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about realizing that some of the students that you're mentoring are not yet able to read made me think of the moment that I realized that there were some adults who had never learned to read. One Sunday in church, I passed an offering envelope to an older woman who did not have one. I may have even passed her a pen. You were to write your name and your contribution on the envelope. After a few moments, the lady nudged me, smiled and nodded in the universal "Is this right?" way. When I looked down, the writing on the envelope was illegible. I realized that the reason the woman did not have an envelope was because she could not fill one out. I nodded and smiled back, but I was embarrassed - not because the lady couldn't read, but because I had forced her to reveal that to me when she likely would not have. Because of that incident, I've often thought of volunteering to teach adults how to read. Maybe, instead of thinking of it, soon I'll actually do it. Thanks for sharing, Michelle
ReplyDeleteThis course has had the same effect on me. I hadn't thought about literacy past its standard definition either, but now that I have, I have quickly become passionate about trying to see the many different forms literacy takes in our society, and even the larger world. It is amazing to me how a thought so big never occurred to me until it was pointed out to me. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience.
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