Literacy and Individual Consciousness

In this article by F. Niyi Akinnaso describes the term "individual consciousness"
as the totality of that person’s individuals knowledge, thoughts, beliefs,
impressions, and feelings in ways that can be represented in the behavior. This
is especially true in speech and writing that most individuals participate in.
Akinnaso wants to show that human interaction within the cultural context have
helped shape individuals view of literacy and from this have shaped their
individual consciousness.
The quote that stuck out at me was the point were Akinnaso states that his teachers
had a profound effect on the way literacy was viewed by him. He states,
"first of all, it has to be noted that I had no reading partner at home. There was no one [that] read to me and almost no one to read to. In the absence of
domestic literacy, much of my learning in the early years took place in
school" (page 145, Literacy and Individual Consciousness, By F. Niyi
Akinnaso). The reason that this quote is so important to the text is because itshows how important that his teachers were in shaping his view of literacy and
the impact that it could have on him as a student. His teachers showed him the
usefulness of learning this literacy and the practical applications in his life
that it could be applied to.
The term that is critical to the text is literacy (page 139, Literacy and
Individual Consciousness, By F. Niyi Akinnaso). The term is important because
it was one of the ways that he helped his father early on. By acquiring this literacy he was able to help his father
count the pounds of cocoa that was harvested by the village. Later on in the

story after he acquired an English form of literacy. Akinnaso’s view of literacy changed throughout his village
life (scribal to political, then to recorder to negotiator). It shows how
literacy is constantly evolving and changing shape and for these reasons can
have a different impact on you as an individual. Even though you loss a sense
of yourself through acquiring new literacy. It’s this literacy that will help shape the person you wereand want to become.
The idea in this text is how literacy shaped Akinnaso life and the ways in which he
views it now. Even though he wasn't able to gain access to literacy early on in
his life, usually only from simple sources such as Sunday school, books, or
higher education were some of the earlier ways in which Akinnaso was able to
gain access to this literacy. Through this however the further he became
literate in "English" the more he lost a sense of his tribal "dialect."
Finally, through his ability to gain access to "proper" dialect he was able to
help his village when people were trying to take advantage of the tribal
villagers. Through this literacy he was able to shape a new sphere of his life
in which he surrounded himself with educated elite in the nearby city. Akinnaso
began to associate literacy with not only small tribal functions but also with
social organization in the villagers local government, which was a microcosm of
which was provided by the village branch, which was the Cooperative Union.

"Sponsors of Literacy"

In this essay by Deborah Brandt she tells about

that from the industrial revolution till now that literacy has loomed as one if

not they greatest engines of profit and competitive advantage in the 20th

century. What Brandt calls sponsors of literacy have influenced these individuals?

These sponsors of literacy are agents local or distant, concrete or abstract,

who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or

withhold literacy and gain some advantage by having it in some form or another

The key quote that I felt was important in this essay was one in which she compared

literacy to a sort of commodity, or good. Brandt states, "literacy, like

land, is a valued commodity in this economy, a key resource in gaining profit

and edge. This value helps to explain, of course, the lengths to which people

will go to secure literacy for themselves or children" (page 558, Sponsors

of Literacy, By Deborah Brandt). It is true about literacy that it does hold

high regard in society. By being able to speak and write well gives you the

advantage over others that aren't quite as able to express themselves in a

certain way. That is why people place such high standards for acquiring

literacy for themselves and others around them.

The key term critical to the work is that of sponsors (page 556, Sponsors of

Literacy, By Deborah Brandt). Brandt explains that these individuals are people

who are a tangible group of people that literacy has required learning

throughout history have always had to ask for permission, sanction, assistance,

coercion, or at minimum, contact with existing trade routes. In simpler terms

it means that individuals have always had to gauge their discourse to somebody

else to make sure that they are following the rules and guidelines that for mentioned

group is participating in.

Overall, the essay contends that sponsors are the type of people whom we look for guidance

and assistance when it comes to looking for the proper literacy necessary for

some sort of skill set. These either can be real people or simply by just

picking up a newspaper, book, or magazine. Sponsors can have the impact of

being able to affect one's feelings towards that person. It can affect how,

what, why, and how people read and write.

Finally, Brandt states that the affluent people in society have better access to

powerful literacy sponsors as part of their economic and political privileges,

whereas poor people or low-caste racial groups have less consistent, less

politically secured access to literacy sponsors. Individuals have the ability

as elder literacy sponsors to pass on their knowledge to other individuals.

Literacy can accumulate in layers from families, workplaces, schools, memory,

and ones in which literacy was shaped out of ideological and economic struggles

of the past history.

"The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse"

In this work done by Lisa Delpit, she argues about how in Gee's article that even though some students aren't giving the discourse necessary to compete in this linguistic society that they can be overtly taught, contradicting Gee who said that it couldn't. She finds two key arguments that are key to her arguments. The first is that individuals who haven't been born into a dominant discourse will find it harder, impossible, to acquire such discourse. The second argument is that the individual born into the one discourse with one set of values may begin to experience a major conflict when attempting to acquire another discourse with a separate set of values.

The one quote in the text that had a profound impact on me was that when empowering children to make a change a message that is influential in shaping them is "the one thing that people can't take away from you is what's between your ears" (page 549, The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourses, By Lisa Delpit). The reason this quote is so powerful to me is because it's true that the one thing in life that nobody can ever take away from you is the discourse, knowledge, and facts one gains throughout a lifetime. In my future teaching career I want my children in my classroom to know that no matter what happens to you in life the education that you will receive will make it so that you have the ability to compete with anyone else in society.

The key term that is critical to the text is acquisition (page, 547 The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse, By Lisa Delpit). The reasons that this term is critical is because it’s the main argument of Delpit that you can learn “overtly” through repetition and practice learn the discourse necessary to become successful in life. This means that through education and learning the proper discourse you are better able to compete in an environment that is dominated by words. The more that you have command of a certain discourse the better suited you are to be able to gain access to better jobs, better pay, and possibly a better way of life. You can acquire these skills not only from family, friends, kins, groups, but also from learning it in the school environment as well.

Overall, the text describes how one can begin to gain access to this discourse through the schooling process. The teachers that are most successful at achieving this task are the ones who can teach students to write and speak eloquently, maintain neatness, think carefully, exude character, and conduct themselves with a sort of decorum. This acquisition of discourse can be attributed to one or more teachers who are committed to this process.

The thing that teachers can do to overcome these barriers to teaching this sort of discourse is by being able to acknowledge and validate student’s home language without using it to limit their students potential. Secondly, teachers must be able to recognize conflict between student’s home discourses and school discourses. Finally, teachers can begin to be aware of the unfair "discourse stacking" that our society chooses to engage in.

"Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction and What Is Literacy"

In this work written by James Paul Gee, explaining that you as an individual are more subject to gaining discourse from primary discourse (parents, siblings, family), and reinforced by secondary discourse (social goods such as money, prestige, power.) Gee states that "language" can be a term that is misleading because it often suggests that it refers to "grammar" However, language and grammar are two different things. Language, is written words whereas grammar is seen as fixing the written words to make the work flow better.

The quote that most influenced me in the reading was were Gee states "discourses are not mastered by overt instruction (even less so than languages, and hardly anyone ever fluently acquired a second language sitting in a classroom), but by enculturation ("apprenticeship") into social practices through scaffolded and supported interaction with people who have already mastered the Discourse (page 527, Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, By James Paul Gee). This quote stuck out to me because I thought that you could acquire the skills necessary to learn a primary discourse from school. I knew that parents played a major impact on you learning a discourse but I thought instruction was used as a reinforcement tool. Gee contends however that to master your primary discourse you rely on individuals who have already mastered the discourse with which you are working with.

The central terms to the text are primary and secondary discourses. Primary discourse are being a member of a primary socializing group (family, clan, peer group). Secondary discourses are the mastery of a particular discourse at a certain place and time, bringing with it the acquisition of "social goods" (page 527-528, Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics, By James Paul Gee). The reason these themes are so important is that a primary discourse is one in which you learn from individuals that are close to you. After, you have mastered the primary discourse you take what you learned from primary discourse, then through further mastery from other individuals you begin to construct the world around you. Once you have mastered secondary discourse you are able to compete for money power, and prestige.

The first concept of the text is that primary and secondary discourses are necessary for an individual to be able to compete in society. After, mastering these skills you are able to gauge yourself against other individuals and see where you "stack up" to them when it comes to competition for things deemed necessary for survival. One key fact to keep in mind is that primary discourses vary across cultural, ethnic, regional, and economic groups in the United States. This can sometimes put individuals at a disadvantage compared to individuals who haven't been placed in the same sphere having to come all the way from the bottom just to master a discourse deemed necessary for success.

The second concept in this text is that if you cant master the discourse then you are considered a non-member of the dominant group. By mastering the primary discourse you should are able to define literacy as the mastery of or fluent control over a secondary discourse. It is important to remember that discourses are attached to identity. If you fail to display an identity, which is key to announcing that you have the same identity as the members of that group. Mastering the discourse determines if the individual is a beginner or pretender.

"The Human Cost of An Illiterate Society"

In this article by Jonathan Kozol, he discovered that after graduating from Harvard University in 1958 that while teaching in the public school systems in Boston's inner city that he made a startling discovery. It was published in his first book, Death At An Early Age that the schools failed to provide an adequate education to the poor, mostly concerning the minority population. One of his most profound works was Illiterate America in which he begins to examine the human and financial costs that illiteracy can have in the United States.

One quote that was important to me that summed up the life of an illiterate person was when a woman stated, "you don’t choose" you take your wishes from somebody else (page 207, The Human Cost of An Illiterate Society, Jonathan Kozol.) The reason that I selected this quote was because it's true that if you can't read you are pretty much at the mercy of someone else dictating a world to you that you have no say in. You basically just live in the shadows of the literate society in which you hopefully don't get lost in the mix.

The term that is critical to the text is illiterate (page 203, The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society, Jonathan Kozol.) The reason that this term is important to the text is because it’s the premise of the whole article. If you can't read in this society that is driven by text then you are at a disadvantage. You have trouble being able to simple tasks such as writing a check, being able to recognize labels on food, to being able to travel freely.

Of all the blogs that I had to right about this is the one that touched me the most. I never realized how difficult life can be if you aren’t provided with the tools and skills necessary to be able to function in this word dominated world. You basically have to be "babysat” through simple tasks. This can lead one to be taken advantage of since you aren't able to understand the meaning behind the words.

Our schools have to be held accountable so it’s up to our schools to stop this trend of producing illiterate kids and change this vicious cycle. I practice being proactive instead of reactive when it comes time to teaching our youth. Its time that we teachers begin to reverse this trend, stand up, and shout "I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN!! This is when I quote Barack Obama and say to myself "change you can believe in."