Literacy

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Literacy

In the article the “Ethnography of Literacy” by John F. Szwed, I agree with his stance that literacy is very important in our society. It’s important in everyday aspects of life whether it be getting a job, graduating from school, or just being a functioning member of society. I was surprised to hear that literacy rates are down as much as they are. I remember reading an article that stated that they were deciding on how many jail cells to build in California by how many students could not read by the third grade. As a future teacher, literacy skills will be one of my main focuses with the children because without these skills you can’t get very far in life.

            Szwed writes, “The stunning fact is that we do not fully know what literacy is. The assumption that it is simply a matter of the skills of reading and writing does not even begin to approach the fundamental problem: What are reading and writing for?” (pg. 422). I thought this quote from Szwed was interesting in the way that he steps back from the implications of literacy in the classroom and focuses on the importance of literacy within our society. I agree that literacy is important, not in the way it is tested by experts, but by ordinary people in ordinary activities in our society. When meeting someone you immediately base how smart that person is by the ay they speak and write without even meaning to. If we want to come off as a intelligent society then we need to focus our efforts as teachers to educate our students in reading and writing.

            I believe that it is important for students to gain a respect for reading and writing and an understanding for the importance it will bring them in their lives. Also, students need to know what they enjoy reading and writing because this will lead to a future enjoyment of literacy and they will not need a teacher to aid them in the discovery of new knowledge. I think that if our new generation of teachers can focus on these facts and implement what we know to the youth then our literacy problem can be resolved. The main importance is to have the students want to learn this. As a kid it is not very fun to work on grammar but it is our jobs as teachers to make this interesting and pass on our knowledge.