When I visited my old elementary school two years ago and told them how I am an English Writing major I didn’t get any strange looks. That was odd to me. Because from second grade to fifth I was in a reading program that took individual students who were struggling with reading and writing and gave them some extra attention to get them up to speed with their other students. This is one of the first memories I have of literacy; the small classroom, six other kids, and the yellow guider to help keep our eyes focused on the words we were reading. As an adult looking back on this situation I can’t help but be embarrassed by what was then my inability to read and write. Due to all the hype in the media today about illiterate children and adults it has received a very negative connotation. But as a kid then I remember coming home and telling my mom all of the things I learned in Ms. Spon’s class. At that age I didn’t know how to feel embarrassed and I didn’t feel “illiterate”. Now, I know I was what most people say “behind”, however, literacy as we discussed in class today is the ability to articulate and understand thoughts of your own and others for the purpose of communication. I couldn’t do that so by definition I was illiterate at the time. Which brings me to some of my deeper thoughts..I didn’t feel illiterate so is that why I prefer to say I was behind other students. What has been on my mind since class is that intimate relationship we have with literacy and I have begun to think more about the feelings and emotions that go hand in hand with literacy. So I pose the question does having the feeling of being literate/illiterate play into our definition at all? Can one be literate and feel illiterate and vise versa? These are just some thoughts I’ve been toying with and some may not make complete sense but I figured it was worth throwing out there.
You say that you didn’t feel “illiterate” you just felt behind, which made me think–do we categorize children as illiterate? Would we call a child who hasn’t yet learned or is learning how to read illiterate or would we just use it to refer to adults and teens who can’t read? I have never considered that. Also, what would feeling illiterate involve? I imagine it would involve a lot of frustration at not understanding and being surrounded by something you don’t understand, like visiting a foreign country. But then again, I don’t think that people are just illiterate and literate, I think there are varying degrees, because, I believe, most people have at the very least the ability to recognize letters and letter sounds.
I would like to build upon the thoughts of the above. “sammix3” brings up the idea that there are varying degrees of literacy. I would like to challenge that there are perhaps different branches instead. The Trunk of our literacy tree represent the basic ability to read and write in a language, if you can do that, you’re literate. However, as we discussed in class, there are also other aspects of literacy that expand from the Tree of Literacy such as ability to understand 1/26 the English alphabet, ability to talk in sign language, understanding outside languages. These branches are all a bigger part of the main idea “Literacy” though not knowing each branch doesn’t plunge you into illiteracy.
I think it is odd to classify children as illiterate that can obviously read and write, just at a slower pace. Everything is there in your head and you understand fully, it just takes longer to convey it. I think literacy works on a two scale system: being able to absorb something, and being able to express that absorption. Being slower at the later doesn’t fully define the person, it just holds them in the “gray” zone of literacy.
I agree with all of you that classifying a child as illiterate is odd but technically anyone who is illiterate is just someone who has not learned yet to be literate. So I do stick behind saying children are illiterate at least until they learn. To Sammix3, I believe I said I was “behind” is now due to the fact that I am literate. If I never learned this post would probably be more of a my first memory of being an illiterate person…or something along those lines? To Tucker, I think you misunderstood. It wasn’t obvious that I could read and write. I struggled a lot with that to the point that I had to go to a special class to make sure I eventually would be able to. My parents weren’t sure that I was reading and writing so I feel the word obvious in your comment off. Lastly to Ser Francis Drake, I agree with the fact that there are many different branches of literacy which is why in my post I say that by definition I was illiterate. But I think I am only able to say that there are different branches now is because I understand more fully what it is like to be literate. Very confusing but something I thought I should mention