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.

Other factors - Community values

[Pat]

Pat stopped going to high school when she got pregnant her senior year of high school. Soon after giving birth she started working at a meatpacking plant and saw no use in returning to school to graduate.

Years later, the same meatpacking plant that kept her out of school shut its doors. “I started looking for jobs but they all needed a GED.” Her only choice was to go back to school. She now devotes her time to preparing for the GED test that she plans on taking this summer.


“When I get my GED people will see me different for sure. Without that piece of paper, I was at a stand still. Once I get my GED, I’ll be on top of the world.”

Prendergast writes, "How people experience literacy development becomes bound up with how they perceive their own identity, and the identity of others" (Prendergast 10).

Although Pat now sees the value of literacy in her life, when she was younger she didn't see the point of education. There wasn't someone in her community to push her to quit working to go back to school. Making money was of utmost importance. Thus, literacy acquisition for Pat was tied to her perceived identity within her community and its values. In her community, it was more valuable to make money right away than to postpone the paycheck and return to school. Furthermore, in her community, there wasn't someone who could support Pat and her newborn child while she finished school. As a member of her community, she had little choice but to quit school to work at the meatpacking plant. This choice made the most sense to her life in her community.

What’s it worth to you?

"Increasingly, scholars have found literacy to be a resource with potential, but by no means guarantees for individuals at the mercy of larger economic and social forces." (Prendergast 5)

"… Moreover, there is surprisingly little agreement on or specific evidence for the benefits of literacy, whether socially or individually, economically or culturally." (Graff 3)

"Economists, sociologists, planners, and governments inform us that literacy rates correlate with scores of factors, ranging from individual attitudes to economic growth and industrialization, per-capita wealth and GNP, political stability and participatory democracy, urbanization and vital rates, communications and consumption—to list only a few of the correlations reported. There is a certain logic behind many of these correlations; however, no convincing or documented explanations or analyses correspond to them." (Graff 9)

“A lot of jobs I applied to and you needed a high school diploma. If you want a higher paying job, your GED helps you.” – Brenda, Tolton Center student


The quotes above illustrate the apparent disconnect between what scholars have found that literacy does and does not do and what the students at adult literacy sites believe that literacy will help them achieve.

So, whose side is right? What is literacy good for? And, as Prendergast asks, “who benefits from proposing literacy as the answer to all social malaise?” (Prendergast 5)

[Brenda]
Brenda took her GED test last week. She spent seven hours sitting in a classroom downtown on a Saturday with only a 45-minute break for lunch. She must believe in the power of literacy or else she would not have made such an investment. Brenda believes that literacy has direct social, individual, economic, and cultural benefits.

“Literacy is a great purpose in life. We need it in everyday life. We use it in everyday life. It’s not just reading and writing. It’s the way you present yourself by communicating with others. It helps you be a better communicator. Your sentences are better. You can write letters and represent yourself better in those letters… I think people kind of look down on [illiterates]… like they are not capable to learn.”