The
ethos of this blog is literacy, not a minimalist’s version
of sitting on the bare edge of reading and writing but the radiance of written
and spoken discourse that not only entertains and enables but also penetrates
ignorance and sends it packing, a phrase, incidentally, coined by Shakespeare
in Henry IV, Part 1.
And
so I’m going to be posing questions and ideas much like today’s concerns: What is literacy’s import for the
future? How will not taking care of
literacy for all people affect our future?
Will the decision not to support it in your own personal practice be
like the butterfly effect in chaos theory?
So
many questions must be answered.
One
of my favorite writers, Ray Bradbury, wrote a short story that is now the most
widely published piece of science fiction ever.
“A Sound of Thunder,” published in 1952, is the story of a man called
Eckels who enlists a time travel company to take him to the past for the
sporting purpose of hunting and killing a tyrannosaurus rex, one that was going
to die within minutes anyway so as to preserve the balance of nature in
time. In keeping with this caution and
preventing any dangerous changes to the future, the directors of the expedition
warn Eckels not to step off the path, but the terror of encountering the beast
causes him to step off and crush a butterfly under his heel. Such a seemingly
harmless event turns out to be anything but meaningless, as Eckels painfully
comprehends when he returns to a future quite different from the one he left
only a short time earlier.
Will
the choices we make about education engender devastating effects that we cannot
live with in a harmonious way?
My
focus here is literacy as a personal choice, the maintenance and effects of
which are as serious as the butterfly under your heel. As a parent and educator myself, I can
attest—and so does the research—that literacy begins with an attitude toward
learning. It’s always about balance,
isn’t it. Children know instinctively
that learning is enjoyable, desirable until balance is undermined. Computer games, for example, offer practice
in the area of thinking skills until an exorbitant amount of time and focus on
them becomes a symptom of something destructive. The choices we make today about our own
literacy—that personal, harmonious growth that comes from more attention to our
own reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking—affect much of who we
will be and what we will accomplish tomorrow. My hope in this blog is that I
can share with you some thoughts on developing personal growth toward lambent
literacy and the special confidence that is gained only in that moment of
brilliance that illumines knowledge and understanding.
Well, stay tuned for the next post. I’m going to be discussing speaking as an effective method of
communicating and overcoming stage fright.
Thank you, Susan, for inspiring us with the call to personal literacy. As a former English and Reading teacher, I saw first-hand how my students struggled (especially in a new language) to communicate and live with self-actualization. There was and is a dire need for our young people to grow through literacy. In fact, most young people learn about who they are from books and stories. Continue to inspire teachers and students to reach these levels of literacy. I look forward to your next post.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.TexasTeacherGuide.com
Sincerely, Rachel
Thanks for your very perceptive comments, Rachel. In an age of political uncertainty regarding support and funding for education, the only resort for most of us is to take control of literacy on an individual level, one small step at a time, and make a concerted effort to improve one area at a time in our own personal literacy. Thanks again. See you next time!
DeleteIt's tough for us educators. I think parents have the greater responsibility for literacy. My mother taught me that, so I'm lucky because not every child gets that. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhen I become a parent, I want to read to my child and I want to make the learning process as enjoyable as possible. We all like "learning" but it gets a bad rap. I think Internet literacy will actually help children in the future, but we're living in that transitional period where the generations are overlapping. Children don't get enough time on the computer for literary activities, so all they want to do is play video games.
Luckily, more websites and interactive literary programs for the computer are popping up everywhere to hopefully alleviate these issues.
What are your thoughts about computer literacy helping children and closing the literacy gap?
Always fun chatting with you!
Lucky you to have such attentive parents who encouraged learning! I'd like to meet them.
DeleteInternet literacy is essential--it's the world in which we live and we must be literate about it but accept its limitations and cope. We all must remember, however, that the computer is a tool but not the only method of reaching our goals. Again, it's about balance. If children confront most of their learning in front of a computer, think about all the opportunities in the outside world that they will miss out on. I still believe in fostering imagination, not just digitally but in many different environments. Although education still is not equal for all children, many get the basics of computer literacy in school; as with everything in education, we have to continue to improve what we do every day.