Reading Response #11

Summary:

     In Deborah Brandt's article, "Sponsors of Literacy," she discusses how a person's literacy is shaped by circumstances and institutions that "sponsor" literacy, and that people do not just become literate. Brandt talks about sponsors in terms of typically older, more knowledgeable people who help others become literate, while gaining something themselves. She claims that literacy would not happen without sponsors. Brandt even uses the actual experiences of a few individuals to express how an individual's surroundings affects their literate potential.
     Brandt also traces the history of literacy and how its demands and standards have become much higher throughout time. People are more dependent on it these days and are expected to do a lot more with their writing and reading.
     Brandt's article reminded me of Stuart Greene's "Argument as Conversation." Brandt's article is basically explaining a never-ending chain; a domino effect. Literacy would not occur if it weren't for something else, and so on. Greene argued that arguments are like conversations between people; every argument is brought up by another argument or idea. It is an essentially similar idea, where there is a never-ending cause and effect.




Pre-reading:

The U.S. and my community has always encouraged reading and stressed it as something very important. We have always been told that the more we read, the better writers we will become and the larger our vocabulary will be. It has also always been stressed that good grammar and writing skills are crucial, and that reading will also help us with this. There have been book sales and fairs--basically anything to encourage students and younger children to pick up some books and read. This is even relative to adults, too. Adults can always acquire more knowledge from reading, as well as enjoyment. They can also always improve on their reading and writing skills.



Applying and Exploring Ideas:

1. My own literacy history was much different than the history of Branch and Lopez. My sponsors came form my school, my parents, siblings and other family members, church, and the media as well. All of these things surrounded my life and had a huge impact as they still do today. Much of what we learn comes from what we are taught and what we see and experience. We are not simply born and grow to be literate, we have to become it and learn from our sponsors, as Brandt says. I had a lot of support from my parents, as well as a lot of access to books and computers. All of these things have helped me with my literacy.




My thoughts:

     Although I thought the topic of the article was interesting, I thought it was much too long. It was also at times confusing. It was kind of difficult to follow along and understand exactly what point Brandt was trying to make. She added politics into her writing quite a lot, which I did not understand. I realize that it had something to do with the literacy of the individuals she discussed, but it seemed a bit too dissimilar to me. Her idea of sponsorship ended up getting kind of lost, and I didn't really see how it fit into her examples. It doesn't make a lot of sense until it gets to the end of her article, where she explains more clearly what she was trying to say.