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How Access Negatively Impacts Literacy

Wouldn’t it be unfair if you couldn’t succeed or grow in something because of the lack of resources you have available to you? Many people experience this constantly throughout their lives. I see this issue the biggest in literacy growth. People may not have the support or available resources/sponsors to help push their growth. The four readings I will be coming back to are Brandts, Malcolm X, Wardle and Downs, and Cisneros. Each provide different situations or experiences about how the lack of access can negatively affect a person’s literacy. Access includes, paper, pen/pencil, computers, cell phones, books, sponsors, and teachers.

Image: shows various examples of access (computer, cellphone, writing tools, and communication between others). https://www.channelone.com/blog_post/how-to-use-channel-one-news-to-teach-media-literacy/

Wardle and Downs talk about how “good” writing is dependent on writers, readers, situation, technology, and use. They don’t directly talk about how access can affect literacy, but the first thing that catches my attention is when they talk about the contingency of writing. The contingency of writing- the fact that what makes writing good depends on circumstances (pg. 14, paragraph 4). The circumstances they talk about is the use of technology (texting) and interactions on social media. Not everyone has the ability to obtain a device to communicate with people, so how are they supposed to learn how to be efficient writers? If people don’t have the tools that others have, they won’t be able to gain the experience as others do on a daily basis. This reading shows how people with different circumstances can either gain or lose out on different opportunities.

Image: Professor Deborah Brandt http://www.education.udel.edu/2015/09/28/deborah-brandt-to-discuss-writing-research-on-september-30/

The next reading is written by Brandt, she’s a professor Emerita in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She’s written several books and a number of scholarly research articles about literacy. Brandt’s reading directly talks about how the lack of access can affect a person's literacy. She talks about the statistical correlation between high literacy achievement and high socioeconomic status. Majority-race status regularly shows up in the results of national tests of reading and writing performance. These findings capture the unequal conditions of literary sponsors based on access. (Page 77, paragraph 1) she goes on to talk about how higher caste racial groups have multiple contacts with powerful sponsors as a routine part of their economic and political privileges. People from low caste racial groups have less consistent and politically secured access to literary sponsors, to help grease their way to academic and economic success.

She then moves on to talk about the experiences of Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez (pages 77-79). It compares the two individuals and how one had way more opportunities than the other. Dora had to drive seventy miles to find not only suitable groceries but also spanish-language newspapers and magazines that carried information of concern and interest to them. She also had to teach herself how to read and write. These experiences show just how much harder people have to work if they don’t have the same available resources as others. What if they have to work to help support their families? They won't be able to educate themselves as supporting their families come first.

Image: Malcolm X  (Truman Moore/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty) https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/remembering-malcolm-x-50-years-article-1.2115740

Malcolm X’s reading shows the opposite of brandts reading, it shows how he took advantage of a bad situation and turned it into good. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. He was orphaned as a child and lived in a series of foster homes. He ended up engaging in criminal activities and dropped out of school in eighth grade. The reason he dropped out was because his teacher told him he couldn’t be a lawyer due to his race. In 1945 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for larceny and breaking and entering. He read vigorously in prison, he became a strong advocate for the rights of african americans. He first became an influencial leader in the Nation of Islam but left the organizatipn in 1964. He then became a Sunni muslim and founded an organization dedicated to African American unity. He was assassinated a year later. This reading shows that the lack of access actually pushed him to become a better person both in his actions and literary. Malcom X’s account exemplifies many of the principles that Brandt introduced in “Sponsors of Literacy” . For example, he demonstrates the extent which literacies shape the worlds available to the people and experiences they can have, as well as how literacy sponsors affect the kinds of literacy we eventually master.

Malcom X’s experience can show the opposing view of this argument. He still came to be successful even though he didn’t have access to much. People may think you just have to work with what you have, but I don't believe people should have to work harder just to become more literate. Reading and writing is everywhere, so everyone should be able to obtain the same tools, resources, and technology as everyone else.

With keeping these readings in mind, the lack of having access can deeply affect how people can be more/less literate than others. Not being able to have access to things like, technology, sponsors, or tools (books) can make someone go through so many obstacles that they shouldn’t have to go through. Once again, literacy is everywhere, it’s vital for everyone to be able to communicate. If everyone had the same access, we could be so much more successful as an economy and country.