What is a better life? The "other" value of literacy.

Although in this blog I have shown the evident disconnect between literacy in practice and literacy in theory, I haven't really analyzed the effects this disconnect has on the students. In my last post, I asked whether adult literacy sites were doing a disservice to students by following an autonomous model of literacy. I don't believe that there is a concrete answer to this question.

I agree with proponents of the ideological model of literacy in saying that literacy education is political. However, I have seen the benefits that depoliticized literacy education has brought to the students at Tolton. One of the students at Tolton related the story of how she used to take literacy courses at Harold Washington City College because she was ashamed to tell people that she couldn’t read. When people asked her why she was going to school, she would lie about what she was studying. She finally started taking classes at Tolton and now she can read and is preparing for her GED test. The supportive community at Tolton made her feel proud of her accomplishment and of her continuing struggle to get her GED. She says she now tells everyone exactly what she is going to school for. The pride that she gained in her accomplishments would likely diminish if she was asked to question, criticize, distrust, and devalue the system in which she is trying to enter.

I also agree with Freire and Prendergast in that reading, writing, and math alone cannot counter the systematic oppression of minority groups in our society. There are many other factors that impede the upward social mobility of the underclass. However, I have seen the "other" value that literacy has for academically marginalized adults. If we only consider how literacy allows or disallows the economic progress of individuals and society, we are ignoring the other benefits that can be gained from literacy education.

A 70-year-old student at Tolton, for example, spoke about how all her life she had been a quiet person who kept to herself, but that learning how to read at the Tolton Center had helped her to come out of her shell and start talking to people. She said she now talks to everyone--that she actually talks too much! This is a student whose age, race, and socioeconomic status impede her from gaining much, if any, monetary or political advancement from her newly acquired literacy skills. However, she has directly and personally benefited from literacy acquisition. Whether her new confidence came from being able to read--from joining the ranks of the literate--or simply from being in an environment that fosters friendship and community, this student's life improved because of literacy education.

These are the "other" values of literacy. To link the disconnect between literacy in practice and literacy in theory, scholars must analyze how these "hidden" benefits of literacy education problematize literacy theories. I think that in wanting to create a literacy model that will benefit marginalized communities at large, theorists are ignoring the benefits that literacy education has on singular marginalized students.