What does it mean to be literate?
Many times we ask ourselves, what are we to do with so many people who seem to be very badly educated, the illiterate, unwashed masses. Perhaps we feel a bit like the Romans dealing with Barbarians, The Europeans, converting the savage Indians to make them civilized, and thus human. My daughter brought this video to my attention, knowing how I am always correcting her grammar, whether it is in conversation or online. I found it ironic in this medium (!) to show how literacy is perceived in an online forum.
So, what is literacy? According to the above video, it is being able to spell and use proper words to convey what you mean to say. I think this is very clearly demonstrated. However, I find myself asking if there is not another part of literacy involved. Many of the misspellings seem to be something that a simple spell check or other computer program could easily correct, and therefore avoid. I was somewhat dismayed at President Trumps tweet; I would think the President (or his minions) would know the difference between heel and heal. However, I think in all the above mistakes, we still understood the meaning of the message. Take for instance this picture. I am able to read this, even though it is technically nonsense. Does this mean I am literate in nonsense?
In reading Unflattening, I have come to see that it depends on the type of literacy we are speaking about. Can we shift our view of what it means to be literate? Can we see that reading and composing and playing music is a type of literacy? How about mathematical formulas, chemical formulas, maps and keys and longitude and latitude? “Well, I can kind of see that,” you say, but how about memes, gifs and tweets, cartoons and slang? Is it only the ELA, proper English interpretation that counts?
Would the above meme make any sense to you if you had not watched “The Matrix?”? What if you had not read or watched “Game of Thrones?” Every few years, the pop culture changes, and with it, what people say and talk about change. In 1800, a common phrase was “a miss is as good as a mile”. In today’s culture, we have no idea what it means, but essentially, it means a near miss, or long miss, you still missed, and the distance doesn’t matter. Would a person who used this saying be illiterate? Just because it is not a saying that is used today commonly?
So, we can be literate in many forms, and can tell a story in many ways. We can take an old story, add a twist, and make it a new story. We can tell allegories and poems, pictures, movies and memes. We can make music tell a story, or art portray feelings. All of these are a variation of literacy.
Should we then mock those whose literacy is different than ours? Gee shows in his book that Leona is literate in her families way of speech, and that it is a valid way to tell a story. This puts me in mind of Gullah culture. They speak English, but it is Gullah English. Rather should we embrace the variety that gives us such a rich tapestry to bring about new and changing art forms and stories? If everyone was the same, would we not always have the same books, same stories and be bored to tears, still speaking King James English today? Literacy is about reading and writing, but it is about communicating what is in and on our minds. Teaching people to read and write in a common way is a means to accomplish that, but it can’t be the only means. We need to encourage the creativity and foster the next generation to think outside the box.
Works Cited
Memgenerator.net. Web. 02 Sept. 2017.
Gee, James Paul. Literacy and Education. New York: Routledge, 2015. Print.
“Imgflip — Create and Share Awesome Images.” Imgflip — Create and Share Awesome Images. Web. 02 Sept. 2017.
Imgur. “My Dad Just Sent Me This “Brain Study”.” Imgur. 19 Jan. 2012. Web. 02 Sept. 2017.
N., Elizabeth. “The Princess Bride Quotes.” Why This Movie Works. 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 02 Sept. 2017.
Sousanis, Nick. Unflattening. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2015. Print.
Alonzolerone. “Dumbest Fails #60 | Internet Full of STUPID PEOPLE (2017).” YouTube. YouTube, 22 Aug. 2017. Web. 02 Sept. 2017.
“The Funniest Page on the Internet.” Quickmeme. Web. 02 Sept. 2017.
