Power in literacy is an idea that has fascinated me for some time. While, over the duration of the course, I have been forced to consider the privilege that literacy truly is, I have never had to consider the power that it affords me. In the reading and class discussions of last week, the idea of literacy as power has been raised. As Brandt points out in our most recent reading, literacy is so pervasive that it has simply become an assumed ability of every functional person in society.
The problem is, sometimes there are barriers to literacy beyond the control of any on individual that may prevent them from becoming literate. And a person’s illiteracy essentially excludes them from participating productively (or at least lucratively) in society. There is an intense social stigma around illiteracy, and not enough consideration of the societal roadblocks that may have inhibited those who cannot read and write from learning to do so.
Although the inability to read is not entirely comparable to the disability to walk, see, or hear, for example…it is interesting to see how society treats individuals who (much of the time) had no say in their in/dis-ability. There are national policies protecting the disabled from discrimination in daily life and in the workplace. If a building or location is inaccessible to someone in a wheelchair, a ramp is built. If important labels and signs are not able to be interpreted traditionally by the blind, the message is conveyed in a different way. It goes without saying that the vast majority, if not all disabled people, did not voluntarily impair themselves in this way. Most of the time, their disability was caused by something out of their control.
Likewise, illiteracy is very rarely a choice. The vast majority, if not all illiterate people, did not voluntarily deny reading and writing instruction. And yet, our society stigmatizes and discriminates against them. In my opinion, the correct course of action would instead be to target and implicate the educational institutions and systemic stratifications that provide some in America with more opportunities than others. Do you agree with this take?
Caroline's Theories of Writing Blog 
Your point of almost having a feeling of guilt for having the gift of literacy was a reoccurring feeling I had throughout the readings we have had the past week. One of the points that I would like to share with you was from Deborah Brandt. She wrote, “access to learning, political participation, and upward mobility. At the same time, it has become one of the sharpest tools for stratification and denial of opportunity”. I think that this is a great quote to define literacy because we both feel that many people involuntarily don’t have access to education that will develop their literacy. But, with this quote, it also covers positive aspects of literacy and how it has developed our technology and world into what it is today.
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Caroline, I agree that it is absolutely the responsibility of education to decrease the literacy gap whether literacy is critical literacy and/or critical/rhetorical digital literacy. I think conservatives sometimes have the belief that illiteracy comes from laziness when, you’re right, this isn’t the case.
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