Saturday, March 6, 2010
Illiteracy
Kozol's writing on illiteracy is so real and so true that it is scary. His goal, I believe, is to make us realize how important literacy is and how detrimental illiteracy is. Those who are illiterate not only hurt themselves they hurt others around them. They are hurting themselves by limiting their lives. You need to be able to read and write it is survival in society today. Whether you're taking medicine or walking to the store, it is completely necessary to be able to read. If you can't read the back of your bottle of medicine you could overdose. If you can't read a street sign when you're walking to the store you will get lost. As I said those who are illiterate hurt others too. The children of illiterate parents are at an extreme disadvantage. Not only do you learn to read in school, but you learn to read at home. If you're parents can't read or write, you are more likely to not practice it at home. Without literacy it is impossible to survive. If you can't read you won't get a job and if you don't have a job you don't have money to support yourself or your family.
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When reading Kozols writing on Illiteracy, i also found that his goal was to make us realize how important literacy is to someone in our society. However, while I believe this to be true, I found many of Kozols point to be very exaggerated. I do believe that being illiterate causes a road block in someones life, I don't think it is necessarily as bad as he thinks. To some extent I believe that if people become familiar with certain words or with certain letters, they have the ability to problem solve and figure things out. An illiterate life would certainly be a very tough one, and one that we should be working on improving, however from this reading I get the impression that Kozol finds illiterates useless or doomed. I believe that these people definitely are not, and that we should be working on a society where they can move past their illiteracy, and be able to function in our society.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. It is so essential to know how to read in society or you simply cannot survive. Reading is apart of everything, everywhere and I believe that people should want to know how to read and should be pushed as well as taught at home. Illiteracy makes ones life practically impossible to function in.
ReplyDeleteRachael states, "I get the impression that Kozol finds illiterates useless or doomed." I felt the same way when reading this piece. It is very crucial that people learn to read and write. There are so many job opportunities that will close if someone is illiterate. For example, at my job, there is someone who can hardly speak English or communicate with people. Thus, he cannot help in answering phones or taking care of customers. As a result, he is not scheduled as much as others. As I have learned from numerous personal experiences, communication is one of the most important things in life. Whether it is communication with a boss, girlfriend, or family member, any inadequacy with this skill can harm someone's relationships. Also, illiterate people are easy targets, as Kozol describes. Salesmen or others could try to scam illiterates out of money. The following quote describes the feelings involved in this: "...you end up trusting no one and suspecting everyone of possible deceit." Altogether, reading and writing should be significant areas of focus in school and are skills that must be learned to live comfortably and well.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that people who are illiterate does in fact affect the people around them. It very sad to realize this matter still exist. I've experienced many times in the past that my parents did not like to go to parent/teaher conferences because they could not speak, read, or write in English. As difficult as it was to grow up with illiterate parents, I know they suffered most. It goes to show that Kozel examples may not fully be true but these specific examples do exist.
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