4.21

Hull

Glynda Hull’s main point in this piece is to challenge the idea that illiteracy is causing major problems in the work place and the economy.  The problem of poor worker production goes beyond being illiterate and being literate does not mean that all problems with the economy and work would be solved.  While reading this essay I was reminded of when people say, “She needs to learn English.”  There are two times I remember hearing this.  Once was in a statistics course as an undergraduate and everyone complained about the international instructor’s accent.  He did have a heavy accent but I felt like that was no excuse for us not knowing the material.  I was also embarrassed for him because some people automatically curled their lip up at him because of his accent.  Him being Asian and people stereotyping Asian people as not being able to speak English just made me cringe.  It goes hand in hand with all those other stereotypes like we don’t know how to drive, we’re unemotional, we smell funny, we bind our feet and catch flies with chopsticks. Another time when I heard someone say this was the apartment manager who made a call to another property.  She curled up her lip and started speaking loudly and impatiently.  When she hung up she went off about the other woman, “She needs to learn English.”  I am not against people learning English, but I’m also not against people having an accent. It always sounds so strong to me when people say, “They need to learn English” because of the lip curling and the tone and the implication that people don’t want to learn English or that the miscommunication has to do with a lack of English ability when really the miscommunication might have to do with other factors.  Hull talks about how there are negative implications of illiteracy which are closely tied to race and class.  I agree with this and I also agree that issues of illiteracy are much more complex and can’t be solved by showing a training video or giving tips of the week. 

 

Brandt

Brandt’s essay was well written in my eyes because she combines historical context with case studies.  I enjoyed her questions that dealt with individual paths to literacy as well as how individual experiences relate to the larger economic and political context.  I thought about the language arts programs in school and how they are scripted for teachers as if teachers were stupid or lazy. These programs make so much money selling themselves to entire school districts and teachers have to go to trainings where they get free felt bookmarks and other crap with the company logo on it.  Many companies that design curriculum are about business and making money.  They sell their books in sets with so many different workbooks that you could spend the whole day working on them and a lot of times they go unused.  While reading this article I also thought about access to books and other written texts and technology.  I remember when they were closing the libraries up in Salinas, CA and I couldn’t believe it because libraries are one of the most important public places in a community.  I must say, however that in this country, we—as in everybody—has access to books.  There are books at yard sales & second hand stores for less than a dollar.  There are book order forms at schools with very affordable books.  There are libraries, there are community events with book giveaways so in regards to books, I don’t think that anyone can say they don’t have access to them.  They might be marked up with the cover turn off, we might not all be able to afford to shop at Barnes and Nobles, but we have access to books.  When I was in Mexico is when I really realized this because I didn’t know of 2^nd hand bookstores and I remember going to buy all these beautiful new books. I counted how many pesos it was and it was in the hundreds and then there’s a kid asking for a single peso.

 

I enjoyed how her essay took the definition of literacy and related it to power dynamics and economic factors.  As she puts it, “…as we assist and study individuals in pursuit of literacy, we also recognize how literacy is in pursuit of them.”  By understanding and being conscious of how literacy pursues us (who defines it, what is published, what is used in schools) we are better able to control our independent development as readers and writers.