Childrens Literature and Literacy - Essay Example

Children’s Literature and Literacy According to Hannon (2000, p. 12), “literacy does have a potential for both oppression and liberation”. This precept comes on the heels of what society labels and defines as literacy. Literacy is often viewed in terms of being educated, having graduated high school, or being able to read and write. Hannon (2000, p. 8) sets forth that “literacy is the ability to use written language to derive and convey meaning”. It is a way for people to express and obtain meaning from thoughts, ideas and information. Paolo Freire demonstrated in his book, ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, that literacy can be a tool for liberation and social change (1971, as quoted by Graff, 1995). He illustrated that literacy can potentially free the mind and the person from the physical, emotional, and mental bonds of society. However, it can also be an object of oppression, a means for other people to dominate the weaker and less enlightened minds. This is the thesis of Hannon, how literacy can both be used for both enlightening and degrading purposes. This paper shall discuss this thesis and illustrate points to support both sides of the statement. Literacy has the potential for liberation. From the moment we start to learn to read and write, our horizons and our potentials improve and change for the better. And as we continue to improve our knowledge and our literacy, our minds become open to all sorts of possibilities and opportunities. Our world has been built by knowledge and in order for us to function well in this world, we should have that potential to learn about all this knowledge as well. Literacy gives people the chance to learn about the world, how things work, and how people choose to contribute to the world. History has been witness to how literacy has empowered women, African slaves, the poor, and other members of society who have not always had the chance to gain literacy. African-American slaves were deemed illiterate and not worthy of being educated by their masters. Their masters often feared that they would use their literacy to free themselves from their servitude. “Writing became a tool for liberation when it was used to create a series of passes for working their way north to abscond permanently from slavery” (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 177). And eventually literacy became their means of gaining the same rights and liberties as their white counterparts. Women were originally not given the same opportunities for literacy as their male counterparts. As the boys were given a chance to learn and to go to school, girls and women were relegated to the role of homemaker. They were taught instead how to cook, how to sew, how to clean; they were taught how to be a homemaker. And even when they were given the chance to learn, they were still not given the same opportunities to earn a living for themselves. Literacy gave women the chance to explore the same opportunities as men. Women were able to show that, given the chance to learn, they had the same potential to be what the men could be. They showed that they too could become doctors, teachers, lawyers, engineers, and such other similar professions. Literacy put them in equal footing with men. It liberated them from the kitchen, so to speak. Even as the men feared the effects of women’s literacy to their domestic situation, changes were already happening. “In the United States, England, and France, the nineteenth century witnessed a crisis in the definition of gender roles” (Aliaga-Buchenau, 2004, p. 47). Women now had the chance to leave their homes and earn their living, and not always be dependent on their male relations. Literacy has a cultural significance. It gives people a chance to communicate with people they do not know, people in distant areas, and even people they have generation gaps with. All these people can share one thing in common, and that is the ability to communicate with each other through the channels of written communication. “Literacy means being able to make fuller use of such shared cultural resources and being able to interact more fully with an enormous range of other people” (Hannon, 2000, p. 8). Literacy can strip down barriers of time, distance, and familiarity, and allow people to share ideas, thoughts, and information with each other. One of the most important contributions of literacy to our cultural and social evolution is the chance for generations to get in touch with each other. Hannon discusses how literacy can help us build on previously gathered information. “Not only did writing facilitate within group communication and recording for our ancestors but it greatly accelerated the process whereby one generation could build upon the accumulated knowledge of previous generations” (2000, p. 15). Our present knowledge and technologies are built on the previous efforts of generations that have come before us. Their documentation of their past efforts has allowed us to learn from their mistakes, and from their success stories. In a way, literacy liberated us from the burden of making the same mistakes that our ancestors have made. It gave us a chance to let go of obsolete ideas that limit our potential for bigger and better things. However, as literacy frees us from past mistakes, it also allows us to get in touch with fictional and non-fictional stories of the past. Through literacy we now have access to a wealth of stories, fables, myths, poems, diaries, and songs. They used to be narratives that have now been irrevocably preserved through the benefits of literacy. And through them we get to be entertained and fascinated by their tales and fables; and we get to learn about their trials and their triumphs. Through literacy, the past can be liberated. Hannon (2000, pp. 8-9) believes that the concept of literacy is very much based on what the rest of society expects, not because of what it can bring to a person. People view literacy as something they have to have and gain in order for them to fit in to what society deems acceptable. “There is the fear of being stigmatised as illiterate – which means that many go to considerable lengths to disguise their inability to use written language” (Hannon, 2000, p. 9). This makes literacy oppressive because it is used to impose a standard for people to live up to before society can accept them. Literacy is not gained for literacy’s sake, but for the sake of receiving the stamp of approval from society. Literacy is credited with much importance because people say it is important, not because it is important by itself. Children are then carted off to school, taught their ABCs, and taught how to read, write, and compute in order for them to fit the standards set by society and the school system (Hannon, 2000, p. 8). In this sense, it becomes important for the child to learn to learn first grade spelling, second grade math, third grade science, and so on and so forth. Literacy has now been defined through metes and bounds that children have to learn in order to conform. Expectations about literacy can particularly be oppressing for children. “Virtually all schooling after the first year or two assumes pupil literacy” (Hannon, 1995, p. 5). Children’s reading and writing materials are also commensurate with their expected reading and writing skills. As a result, children who have not yet learned to read and write after their first two years have difficulty keeping up with the rest of the class. The fact that their reading materials do not fit their reading level exacerbates their learning difficulties, and it does not help that the teacher tries “to teach the slow child as if he were bright” (Robinson, 2006, p. 6). If uncorrected, these learning difficulties will continue to get worse. In the end, the educational system is not really doing them any favours at all. Some people contend that literacy can also be used as a means of controlling people. And this is true in many instances. Literacy is needed in order for us to function in society. For people to be governed, they need to be able to read and write on government forms; read road signs, products labels, catalogues, and such other notices (Hannon, 1995, p. 11). Without literacy, a person has difficulty keeping on the right side of the law, on functioning among the greater population, and on keeping himself safe. In this confounding and startling sense, literacy potentially oppresses people because it makes people who cannot read and write have a great potential of breaking laws, of being unemployed, or of being unsafe. Parents too can become victims to the lauded concept of literacy. Parents often expect their children to gain levels of literacy in order for them to “reach goals that they can value for themselves or for their children” (Hannon, 1995, p. 11). And in this instance, they often tend to label literacy as an end, not a means for their children to gain knowledge. Perhaps one of the most unfortunate truths about literacy is that it is often used to put other people down. This can often be seen in the way society views people who are not literate. And our history of uneducated black slaves, women, and the poor is a testament to our present views about illiteracy (Hannon, 2000, p. 2). Most of the time the people we label as illiterates are those who are poor, unemployed, or of the African-American race. These labels and standards of literacy can often be imposed on a particular group of people in order to give them a hard time fitting in the standards of society. The points discussed above indicate how literacy can liberate and oppress people. According to Hannon and other authors cited in this paper, literacy is very much a product of society’s standards and ideas of knowledge and learning. Reading and writing goes through stages and every child must conform to these standards. The child who cannot conform to such standards is often left behind and bound to experience learning difficulties all his life. Literacy has a potential to liberate because it opens up opportunities to people regardless of their age, gender or race. However it has also the potential for oppression because it controls and manipulates us. It also oppresses those who cannot conform to the standards of literacy, depriving them of opportunities for growth. All things considered, literacy is not anymore an end in it itself, but a standard we have to aim for. Reference Aliaga-Buchenau, A. (2004) The "dangerous" Potential of Reading: Readers and the Negotiation of Power in Nineteenth-century Narratives. New York: Routledge Graff, H. (1995) The labyrinths of literacy: reflections on literacy past and present. Louisiana: University of Pittsburgh Press. Grainger, T. (2004) The Routledge Falmer Reader in Language and Literacy. New York: Routledge Hannon, P (1995) Literacy, Home, and School. New York: Routledge Hannon, P. (2000) Reflecting on Literacy in Education. USA: Taylor & Francis Robinson, R. (2006) Issues and innovations in literacy education: readings from the reading teacher. Tennessee: International Reading Association. Rodriguez, J. (2007) Encyclopedia of slave resistance and rebellion. California: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More