Reading Our World
Bright Gilstrap stood up and brushed the fresh dirt off his hands. It’d been a long day on the farm and his old bones ached more than they used to. He’d “read” the signs all through the fall. August had been the foggiest he’d seen in all his 60 years and the woolly bear caterpillars that his nephew John kept bringing him were thicker than ever. (Means 2016) He didn’t need a Farmer’s Almanac to tell him that the coming winter would be harsh. He’d had to do double work today after being sidetracked yesterday. It’s not every day that the U.S. Marshal shows up at your house. He had heard of course about the Census and knew there would be questions but he was unsure of what information exactly they wanted. When they asked him if he could read and write he laughed a little and answered quickly that of course, he could. Bright was surprised that he was one of only a handful of people in Eastatoee Creek that had been deemed “literate”. He’d learned a lot about farming, survival, and how to read the signs nature sends from many of these men who had been dubbed illiterate. While this story finds its roots in part fiction and part family folklore, Bright Gilstrap was, in fact, my great (that’s 4 greats) grandfather. By all accounts, Bright was wise beyond his years. The idea that being labeled literate in 1860 was based solely on your ability to pass a test or write your name seems silly. After all “How one reads the word and how one reads the world are heavily dependent on each other” (Gee, 2015, p. 47). But is literacy just about reading a text? Does cognitive literacy not contribute to being literate? Or is literate, as I see it, a fluid term that in its essence must ebb and flow to encapsulate many mediums.
According to census.gov, the idea for the United States Census came out of the 1790 Philadelphia Convention as a way of establishing the beginnings of our representative-based government. Over the years, some questions have changed. In the 1830’s the Census attempted to account for how many “feeble-minded” family members there were and then the government later replaced that with a tally of the deaf and blind. Starting with the 1840 census the government took a large step in compiling literacy data (Jordan, 2009). The method in which various branches of state and federal government determine literacy has always been a slippery slope. For example, what started as a simple can you read and write your name assessment became a political weapon to inhibit voters in the 1960’s. When the civil rights movement began gathering steam the state of Louisiana attempted to curtail African American voters with a required literacy test. This test was “designed to put the applicant through mental contortions, the test’s questions were confusingly worded. If some of them seemed unanswerable, that effect was intentional. The white registrar would be the ultimate judge of whether the answer was correct or not”(Onion, 2013 ).
Up until now, “we’ve been conducting this discussion amphibiously-breathing in the worlds of image and text”(Sousanis, 2015, pg 53). What if we look then beyond reading to define literate in a different way. What about oral traditions? James Paul Gee said that “as a generative (Chomskian) linguist I believed that only oral language was real language.” (Gee pg 2). Let’s travel back to Estatoee Creek and Bright Gilstrap’s farm. The hills of Northern Pickens County and Estatoee Creek are rich in Cherokee history(Wagner 2005). I imagine, Bright, was surrounded by more unconventionally “literate” folks than would pass any sort of written test. It’s interesting to note, that although considered savages, the Cherokee nation had created their own unique alphabet by 1821 (Wagner 2005).
Perhaps the key to defining what literate means is to be ever changing. Centuries ago, before the printing press came about Monastic scribes painstakingly worked away in isolated areas called scriptoriums to record oral traditions onto scrolls. Their contributions bring to mind a hilarious video of what it may have been like for the first monk who was presented with the concept of a book.
All joking aside, would the monk be considered illiterate? He clearly fails at opening the book, can’t turn the pages, and has no concept of even reading left to right. What if the idea of a book had been discarded? Would it not have been easier for the Monk to say no we’ve always done it this way. “For the rain will still fall and ruts will form, but we must sing, dance, seek ways to step out”(Sousanis, 2015, pg 113).
The definition of literate should be fluid and encompass many different mediums. As a society we should seek to rise above “the medium we think in” that “defines what we see”(Sousanis, 2015, pg 52). The definition of literate can’t exist inside a box. “A changed approach is precisely the goal for the journey ahead to discover new ways of seeing” (Sousanis, 2015, pg 27). My hope is that we all take away at least, a small piece of what we learn to help expand the minds of all the lives we touch as educators.
Sources
Bureau, U. C. (n.d.). Census.gov. Retrieved September 06, 2017, from http://www.census.gov/
Gee, J.P. (2015). Literacy and education. New York, NY: Routledge.
Jordan, J. (Ed.). (n.d.). The U.S. Census Tradition. Retrieved September 6, 2017, from http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2009/censustradition.aspx
Means, T. (2016, August 9). Winter Weather Folklore…In August??? Retrieved September 07, 2017, from https://www.thoughtco.com/hard-winter-warnings-3444400
Onion, R. (2013, June 28). Take the Impossible “Literacy” Test Louisiana Gave Black Voters in the 1960s. Retrieved September 06, 2017, from http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/06/28/voting_rights_and_the_supreme_court_the_impossible_literacy_test_louisiana.html
Sousanis, N. (2015). Unflattening. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wagner, J. R. (2005). Native Americans of Upstate South Carolina. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
Z. (2008, December 11). Retrieved September 07, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cd7Bsp3dDo#action=share
