Literacy as Power

Hello to my few faithful readers. As you can see from this post I survived my Monday. I made small talk with my roommates and I would say that in general no one hates me. That's good... right? My mom keeps telling me that I need to just let it all roll right off my shoulders and be, As my grandmother would say, the bigger person. Honestly though, I really have been being the bigger person and I don't want to do that anymore. I want to be that girl back in Orland who didn't take crap from anyone. It feels good to be that girl. It feels powerful.

Anyway, moving away from the past and into the present, Orland reminds me of what I really wanted to talk about today. I had my Content Lit class(at the ungodly hour of 8 am)and in class we talked about Literacy as three metaphors in an attempt to describe it. It seems like defining literacy and what it means should be easy but it really isn't. It isn't just who can read and who can't because that definition fails to include why people read and what reading is used for.

During the discussion and the reading I really connected to one particular metaphor, Literacy as Power. I grew up in a small town in a fairly small house that had a well built on sand. This means that there was almost never enough water. I remember spending a year sponge bathing and carefully planning my showers so that the majority of my hygiene happened at my father's house. Literacy is powerful for me because it is how I will keep from returning to that. My mom did a good job raising my brother and I but we always worried about money. It was hard not to. Literacy has provided me with the wonderful opportunity to better myself by going to college and establishing a career for myself.

Now, I know that teacher's, especially first year teachers don't make a lot of money but they make more money than I ever had growing up. I am excited to be entering into a profession that will not only make me more financially stable but also help to better the world. I will be affecting the lives of hundreds of children and helping to guide their thinking. I want to show them that passion, hard work and respect can get them out of their own worries and fears. Literacy is just one key to rising to new heights of freedom. To reaching dreams that people in my family and many people in families like mine never thought could be possible for them.