As I read through the Cornelius article I really began to realize how much I’ve come to take literacy for granted. I’ve come to recognize traditional literacy as something that most everybody does; that it was just another required part of education that we all had to go through. The biggest hardship I’ve seen some people go through in their literacy journey is a mild case of dyslexia. Seeing all the stories of people who not only struggled to read and wright, but risked being mutilated and whipped for it really helped to put things in perspective for me.
I’ve always known that literacy wasn’t a staple for many people in history, but to see how hard some people fought to prevent some people from reading was really strange to see. While things in America are (seemingly) better, It makes me wonder if there’s anywhere that tries to subdue literacy like that.
The only parallel I could draw to current times would be the struggle of women to receive education in regions of the Middle East that are governed by extremists. It brings to mind the story of Malala Yousafzai–a young woman in Pakistan who was shot in the head by members of the Taliban for being female and going to school.
She survived and has become an advocate for worldwide access to education for women. The pursuit of education by this individual has become a way for her to uplift her entire community, much in the same way that literate slaves were able to benefit non-literate slaves by sharing their knowledge and skill set.