Sponsors of Literacy

The fact that literacy equals power and opportunity can be seen once again in Deborah Brandt's article Sponsors of Literacy. She demonstrates how the demand for different types of literacy changes over time, leaving behind those who have not acquired the skills and specialties that new technologies require. She also shows, as in the example Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez, how people who are born at the same time and even grow up in the same area can have very different opportunities available to them. Due to his financial and educational background, Raymond had much greater exposure to learning tools and opportunities which enabled him to become a successful software writer. Dora's experiences were much more limited than Raymond's, causing her to have less opportunity for economic and educational advancement. I think this is an important issue to keep in mind when it comes to how society views success. Typically, those with higher paying and more influential jobs are held in high esteem. Americans value hard work and respect those who seem to have worked their way to the top. What is often overlooked is the fact that it may have been much easier for certain successful individuals to arrive where they are, while others who work just as hard but had less opportunities are unable to achieve the same kind of success. I know that educational institutions cannot be changed over night, but reading stores like Dora and Raymond's reminds me of the need to close the gap between the haves and the have-nots, which of course, is one reason for the discipline of Community Literacy and Service Learning. Sponsors have the opportunity to use their influence for good, but communities cannot wait for the ones with the most power and influence to make a positive change. I think that parents, teachers, employers, grandparents--really any literate person--can take part in encouraging literacy in others.

Oprah and Literacy

I enjoyed reading The Oprahfication of Literacy: Reading Oprah's Book Club by R. Mark Hall. In this article Hall discusses the the phenomena of Oprah as a literacy sponsor and the advantages of her influence, ways that her book club complicates theories of literacy, and the fact that teachers ought to pay attention to ways to connect with students based upon what they are seeing in the media.

Although Hall raises some possible objections to Oprah's Book Club, overall, I think it has had a positive impact upon American society. While it may be unfortunate that some viewers would not have the motivation to choose a book for themselves, the fact that Oprah inspires them to read is a good thing. Some Young Adult Literature may not be what many would consider "high" literature, but I think the fact that it fosters reading in many young people who would otherwise not be reading is a very good thing. These "gateway" books have the potential to hook young adults into a lifetime practice of reading. In the same way, Oprah's Book Club invites her viewers to enter the world of books, perhaps fostering an interest in reading that will go beyond the limits of her Book Club recommendations. I thought it was interesting that Hall points out that in "proclaiming the redemptive power of serious fiction, Winfrey reinforces traditional female identities associated with religious faith and education" (661). I probably would not have made this connection on my own, but I could definitely see it once he pointed it out. In Oprah's Book Club, reading is seen as a path to self-discovery and self-improvement, and not as much a tool for developing critical thinking skills or other more "academic" activities. While some may see Oprah's emphasis upon using reading as a means to revive the spirit as negative (because it seems to perpetuate societal gender codes for reading), I would disagree for a few reasons. First of all, it seems that if women who did not read before become readers, then they are more empowered than they previously were. And, if reading for transformation is seen as a predominately female way to read, perhaps the invitation needs to be extended for men to read in this way as well. It works both ways. Secondly, I think there are many different kinds of reading that we can engage in. Sometimes, we should look at a text and analyze it critically. Other times, we should be allowed to cry over it, laugh over it, and allow it to speak to us on deeply personal levels. If reading--if art--can be used to heal the human spirit, then it should be free to do that. I also agree with Hall that teachers should use things like Oprah's Book Club or other popular culture material as a way to engage students in what they may already know or be hearing about in their daily lives. A teacher who meets his or her students where they are will most likely be able to inspire them to explore new literary terrain.

The Necessity of Inquiry

In her chapter "Intercultural Inquiry and the Transformation of Service" Linda Flower discusses how volunteers often approach service opportunities with attitudes and expectations that may add to the problems of situations they are addressing rather than providing long-term help. She says that such "guerrilla service" only "reinforces the distance between the giver and receiver, especially if the contact is superficial and the junket uncomplicated by reflection"(153). She says that the key to successful service is engaging in intercultural inquiry. Eager to help, sometimes volunteers can be overzealous in the wrong ways and end up doing more harm than good. Rather than approaching service opportunities with the mentality that we (the academics/volunteers) are the experts, we need to posture ourselves as learners. The point of this is not to deceive the communities we serve into thinking that we don't have all the answers; it is a reality that we have just as much to learn from them as they do from us.

I could relate to this chapter because I mentored young women at a Residential Treatment Center for two years. These girls were at this facility because of alcohol, drug, or behavioral problems (or a combination of the three). I remember times of hoping that if I could just say the right thing, maybe I could help them not go back to their addictions. I had to learn that I could not change or “fix” anyone and that I needed to listen to their stories and ask the right kinds of questions. Although it wasn't directly related to literacy, I had to engage in a form of intercultural inquiry, which was especially challenging given the fact that my background is very different from most of the girls I interacted with.

I didn't follow “The Effect of Hypertext on Processes of Reading and Writing” by Davida Charney quite as I did well as Flower's chapter. However, the connection I saw between them was the point that learning what is best for others requires inquiry (and often research and experimentation). Designers of hypertext systems must not assume that readers want or will benefit from hypertext. Everyone has different preferences and abilities and so it is important to to keep this in mind when designing literacy tools as well as in teaching a classroom full of students. Inquiry is essential for serving others well, and for transforming our own understanding as learners.

Changing With the Times: Literacy and Technology

In From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies Dennis Baron discusses how communication technologies have changed and impacted communities throughout history. This article reminded me a lot of Ong's Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought in that both articles note that writing is a technology and has not always had the place in communication that it has today. Similarly, the pencil, something that is taken for granted as a commonplace device, required painstaking experimentation and expense to perfect, and also caused controversy much like the computer and other technologies continue to arouse. Baron says that it is too early to tell what long-term effects the computer will have upon society, but that it is unmistakable that it has changed society in significant ways.

I think that with every technology there is the possibility for gains and losses, for benefits and harms. It is wonderful that computers and the internet have made it possible for information to be instantly available at the stroke of a key. This opens up huge possibilities for learning and has made research much more convenient for many people. On the flip side, I think of a research paper I wrote about for my Critical Approaches to Literature and Culture class about the impact of social media upon society. One of the sources I used was a book called Brain Rules by John Medina. Medina points out that contrary to what some may think, the brain is actually incapable of multitasking. This doesn't mean that people are incapable of doing things like playing the piano and singing at the same time, but that "we are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously" (85). What does this mean? Think about the modern-day high school (and even college) student. Many students regularly engage in what appears to be multiple activities at once: working on homework while simultaneously searching youtube videos, texting friends, listening to music, and checking facebook. Since the brain cannot process all these things at once, it has to switch back and forth, causing it to work much less efficiently. Many of us are so used to doing this that it may seem to work just fine, but consider the effect that habits like this may be having upon a student's quality of work or their retention of material. Or consider the reality that we may be so used to giving multiple things only partial attention that we may be training ourselves to give nothing our full attention. This could have a huge impact upon literacy, not just in the academic setting, but in all of life. Of course, like Baron points out, we cannot yet know the long-term impact of computer technology upon society as a whole. Perhaps, we will all learn to adapt in new ways, discovering cognitive capabilities that are now unknown. At this point, however, it seems that our media-addicted culture is certainly not teaching students to process information to their fullest capacity.

Situated Knowledge

In her chapter "The Search for Situated Knowledge" Linda Flower points out that, in seeking to engage in dialogue and deal with issues within communities, differences in viewpoints will inevitably arise. Rather than being a roadblock, however, she says that these differences should actually be sought out in order to arrive at greater understanding. Since individuals come from various backgrounds, they will attach varying meanings and interpretations to words and scenarios based upon their own experiences. These "unarticulated, experientially based interpretive resources" make up what Flower refers to as "situated knowledge" (173) Listening alone does not always enable us to know what someone else's situated knowledge is because this knowledge is intertwined with who we are--it is how we view the world based upon multiple layers of experiences (including family life/upbringing and geographic location), that can contribute to prejudices or blind spots we may not even know that we have.

In order to learn about situated knowledge, we engage in "intercultural inquiry," which Flower defines as "a deliberate meaning-making activity in which difference is not read as a problem, but sought out as a resource for constructing more grounded and actionable understandings" (173). In order for this to happen, individuals need to be able to communicate the "stories-behind-the-story" that influence both how they interpret situations and also offer insight into others' interpretations of reality. Allowing individuals the opportunity to share their thoughts in their own vernaculars and genres is an important way to allow differences to be expressed in a way that gives greater understanding to the parties involved. This "hybrid discourse" offers insight into "consequences that lie outside one's own cultural experience" (184).

As I read this chapter, the word that kept coming to mind was empathy. In interacting with individuals from different backgrounds from our own, it is important to seek to understand who they are and the motivations behind their behavior. So often the obstacles that we face in communication with others comes from a lack of empathy. Problem-solving within communities certainly does not stop with empathy, but I think that it needs to begin with empathy. As our understanding of others' expands, our own views are challenged and we are better equipped to work together in forming solutions to problems.