What Does it Mean to be Literate in our Society?

The idea of being literate is understanding how to use oral and written communication for thinking and behaving in society.  What I question is whether the skills and knowledge has been properly offered and/or taught to ALL members of society.  Are we truly teaching literacy in a way that includes both political and social practice or are we picking and choosing ways in which to maintain social order?  

Teaching basic literacy skills in reading and writing helps prepare people for employment preparation.  Functional Literacy provides the skills needed to be active members of both educational and societal settings. Due to the fact that this resides in the range of 4th-6th grade ability, we are teaching people “how to read as opposed to reading to learn.” (Shannon, 1989, Myers, 1996)  Curriculum used to educate students at this level can appear to be “pre-packaged and restrictive” (Kelly, 1997, p. 10)  Missing is the lack of encouragement needed to challenge texts or ideas to promote critical thinking.   Research shows us that students that tend to fall in this category are ethnic minorities, or low working class people.  History proves that turning our heads, possibly having pre-conceived notions that they don’t want to work toward becoming educated,  have kept them maintained in social inequality.

Our students need to be heard.  Culture needs to be appreciated and discovered.  Standards are a cookie cutter way of teaching skills that will promote learning and promotion in society, but what happens to those students where English is not their first language?  Are we properly engaging them in experiences and literature that provides them with opportunities to discover, question, or analyze? Do we promote their values or knowledge in literacy or politics?  “The greater the intellectual and emotional involvement in learning, the more effectively the brain learns, uses, and retains what is learned.” (Weaver, 1988, p.7)  What gets muddy is how to examine questions of culture, power, and politics in a way that is effective without administration or parents believing we have our own hidden agendas or promoting our own political views or abusing our power of social status.  

The NCTE states a purpose of writing is to develop reasoning with others to improve society.  We need to embrace people from all walks of life and add their language to ours and learn from them as well.  As educators we need to strategically incorporate our students’ backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity, or economical status.  Collaboration is needed to look at ways to teach the skills needed to actively participate in society while at the same time including their own lived experiences and background knowledge that they bring to our classrooms.  

In a world where Growth Mindset promotes “hard work will make you successful” we need to supply the resources necessary to help them reach it.  Many poverty stricken students watch their parents work hard every day and see no improvement or change in their lives. Children are simply lacking things like  food, clothing, and  emotional stability to be prepared to learn.  What are ways in which our school systems are addressing this?  How are we as a society fixing this? History has taught us only the elite were allowed to earn an education.  Now that we are in the 21st Century, has anything really changed?