After reading Purcell-Gates’s article “A World Without Print,” I spent some time reflecting on how much reading is taken for granted in my life. Just contemplating how different my life would be if I wasn’t able to read is a daunting task in and of itself. When you really think about it, our society revolves around being able to read. Even things like texting (something that I spend hours of my day doing without even realizing it) require the ability to formulate communication through the act of reading.
On a whole, our society has become far more dependent on the ability to read in order to be able to function. When I really think about it, I can’t name a single action that I perform on a daily basis that doesn’t require any type of reading. Even simple acts like listening to music require the baseline reading literacy in order to be able to find the artist or song that I am looking for. I know that the family in the article developed processes to get around reading: for example Jenny would memorize most things instead of writing them down. The family also had some functional level of reading, to the point that Jenny knew what some words represented and could piece together concepts when she really needed to. But, for them, reading wasn’t a integral part of life; reading was a fringe actions at best to their family.
Personally, I can hardly fathom life without reading. Reading was such a fundamental part of my life from such an early age that the idea of not having it would completely change the trajectory of my life. For one thing, I would be writing this. In fact, I almost definitely wouldn’t be an English major (or even in college, for that matter) if I couldn’t read. All of my hobbies would have to be completely different. I feel like, without reading, I would be only living half a life. Now for some questions. Can you think of some things that you do during your daily life that don’t require any reading whatsoever? How would your life change if reading wasn’t an integral part of your daily functioning? If you weren’t able to read outside of a very baseline functional level, what are some of the actions that you would have to take in order to compensate?
The idea that someone can’t read dumbfounds me. I am amazed, and so intrigued by the idea, actually. How does that even happen, one doesn’t learn to read? I really don’t understand because I was brought up believing that it is a necessary part of life, and after reading this article, and hearing Becky speak, I feel like I have been lied to my whole life. I’m actually quite upset about it. Although, I’m not sure what I’m actually upset about. I can’t decide if it is that these people were never taught to read, or that these people were so ignorant (about?) (towards?) learning to read. WHY WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO LEARN TO READ? How does a person even function in this society without being able to read? Obviously that is a rhetorical question considering we just read an entire book excerpt about it, but it sort of annoys me. Clearly, daily functioning is greatly affected and sometimes sacrificed because a person doesn’t have any idea of what half of the things they come across in the world mean. I couldn’t imagine a life without being able to read. I was given examples of how an illiterate person functions, but I still don’t even know how I would begin to function, how functioning is even possible. I would likely put myself in a straight jacket, and then seclude myself to a padded room, that is if I didn’t teach myself to read first. WHY DO THEY NOT WANT TO LEARN TO READ? Now that I realize it, I am actually very upset about this and going in circles because I’m just so confused. I guess this is because I was brought up completely differently and am actually probably being very ignorant with this post, I’m just confused, and just realize I’ve used the word actually a lot. I am not targeting people who have disabilities, I am upset with the people who have a choice and ignore it. And just because Jenny and Donny Sr. can’t read, shouldn’t they be encouraging their children to read, and showing them that it is IMPORTANT to daily functioning? That also upsets me.
In Purcell’s piece she mentioned that Jenny would make notes on the calendar using notations that she came up with. This fascinated me, because it meant that Jenny had basically created her own code, her own language, in order to function without the written English language.
When we discuss illiteracy on the first day we mentioned how it’s usually used in a negative way and how today people avoid using it. Jenny was technically illiterate, yet she came up with her own written code to function. She, basically, wrote her own language. She was not anything that people would generally assume to be synonymous with illiterate.
Jenny’s ability to make this code shows that she had sponsors and models when she was young. Her inability to read is not due to a lack of love or attention from her parents, but other factors such as perhaps poor schooling or perhaps a learning disability.
Learning disabilities are such an ambiguous thing. Most of them are hard to diagnose, and teachers who suspect an issue cannot take any action without tons of forms of consent from parents. It sounds like it should be simple for a teacher to intervene and give a child with a learning disability help, but it’s not and that is probably the number one reason that so many people with learning disabilities struggle so hard, give up, and why Becky Carpenter sees so many cases.
I worked in a preschool classroom where we had one little boy who demonstrated several telltale signs of a learning disability. He had behavioral issues, he had speech issues, and he was a little behind his peers. The teacher tried to get him help and tried to take steps to set up an IEP so that he would be taken care of once he entered kindergarten and other grades, but his parents refused to agree. They refused to admit that he had a problem. I couldn’t understand how a parent could not see that their child was struggling and learning at a slower pace than their peers. How do you not notice? How do you not care? How, when a teacher says they want to give your child extra support, do you not automatically say yes? Even if my child wasn’t struggling and the teacher wanted to give them a little extra help I’d accept without any questions. I would want to do anything to ensure that my child is up to where they should be.
While I agree that it’s amazing that some people can function in this day and age without reading, I feel like human adaptability plays a huge role in this. While it’s true that Big Donny and Jenny led very different lives that were certainly made more difficult because of their illiteracy, they still were doing somewhat alright. After awhile of watching TV you could probably sort out different shows that you liked based on characters or images. The same could be said with DVD’s and their covers, or CD’s and their album artwork.
I feel like where there is a will there’s a way, and if somebody really needs to make something work they usually will. I would probably liken an “illiterates” life to a video game where nobody tells you what to do and every hint that you get is written in Greek. So their lives aren’t impossible or even worse, it’s just a lot harder for them to operate in this literacy driven world.
I cannot think of a simple thing I did today that did not require reading from making my instant noodles to driving to walking to going to class. Like Jenny, I can always memorize how my instant noodles are made and where I am driving or walking to. But how would I know the first time I made my noodles that I need to microwave them for 2 minutes? I would feel completely reliant on someone else to at least show me how something is done or where something is for the first time. I would lose a large amount of independence if I couldn’t read. I wouldn’t be in college now about to graduate with a bachelor’s degree and a (hopefully) promising career ahead of me without being able to read. I don’t even know how I would have graduated from high school without being able to read. Becoming literate would be forced upon me, and if I was unable to become literate, I would be placed into a special education class which would attempt to get me up to a functional level of literacy. Having gained this functional literacy level, I would most likely be working directly out of high school. But I can’t think of any jobs that don’t require being literate. I honestly have no idea how someone now is able to graduate high school or even get through middle school without attaining some form of literacy.
If I was not allowed to read starting right now my world would absolutely crumble. There is no way I would be able to live my life they way I do if I could not read. I like what Sam had to say about Jenny creating her own code to write notes on the calendar and how this was, in a way, her own language. Creating a language remembering all of the characters would be very difficult because there isn’t anyone to learn or ask for help because no one else uses that language. In a way Jenny was literate, she just wasn’t literate in a language that other people spoke so she wasn’t able to communicate.
I also agree that learning disabilities are quite a difficult topic. There are many parents who do not want their kids to have a learning disability so they refuse to acknowledge it for some time. Hopefully one that child is older he or she will understand enough about his/her own abilities to self-advocate if necessary. A learning disability does not mean someone is incapable of learning; it just means he/she has to go about the learning process in a different manner.
We get used to a certain lifestyle and formulate our lives around the use of different skills. I suppose I would have a stronger memory if I didn’t know how to read because I would not be able to reference notes or lists of things I need to do. I would most likely create my own way of communicating on paper, maybe drawing pictures and symbols to represent words and objects, but without others knowing my language it would be difficult to communicate other than orally.