Example Of Sponsors Of Literacy Essay

Deborah Brandt, in her essay ‘Sponsors of Literacy’, widens the terms literacy significantly. She elaborates on factors that control the possibilities of literacy. By literacy she means basic expertise that entails basic knowledge of some sort. She also means this as the primary building block that makes people capable of earning. Through her examples, Brandt makes the concept of literacy a dynamic idea – something that grows in a person and something that is utilizable. She also talks about literacy being controlled by economic factors. On the other hand she narrows down the concept of ‘sponsor’ for her use of the word in relation to literacy as something that facilitates and promotes or hinders and controls literacy. Every phenomenon that affects literacy in a direct way is a sponsor of literacy for Brandt. The essay is descriptive instead of being prescriptive, which is a remarkable achievement.
Brandt’s has illustrated the role that sponsors of literacy learning play. For a large part of the essay she is able to look beyond the shackles and hindrances in the way of literacy learning. Let us look at her examples of a boy learning computer literacy and a girl learning foreign language literacy. Brandt asserts that certain types of literacies are more available to people coming from economically influential backgrounds while for people of limited means the number of opportunities as well as their potential for leading a prosperous life.
The provision of sponsors rests on different causes and some groups have greater access to superior force than the same to others- this is creation of diversity in literacy. Brandt explains “the crisis of literacy” is the gap between people’s capacity to attain literacy standard that are constantly on the rise. Sponsors add to the gap as they participate in political and economic competition, which results in a greater number of people being expected to know more writing and reading. Brandt contends that literacy is misused and that development in individual literacy can result in to more big-picture changes. At the end Brandt summarizes her work as, “What I have tried to suggest is that as we assist and study individuals in pursuit of literacy, we must also recognize how literacy is in pursuit of them.” Literacy sponsorship is unique to every literate individual.
Brandt misses out in her essay that people do not seek literacy itself and that gaining literacy is often a pursuit towards something else. Indeed if people of poorer economic conditions would invest time and resources for the pursuit of literacy itself it will end up in significant gains for them. Another aspect I found missing is that many people of the richer class fail to utilize possibilities of literacy available to them. Lastly I also found the essay wanting of personal fulfillment that literacy brings to an individual.
As I was learning English as a second language, my most difficult challenge was when my teachers assigned essays for me to write. I did not know how to start writing, or how to end. Every time I tried to write the essays, my head became empty. However, I have a friend who always wrote better essays. Whenever there was an essay that needed to be written, he could utilize his tutor’s help. He was born into a family where his parents had no money to spend for his education. The grade he attained from the essays was always quite high. I was jealous and tried to catch up to him with in my own uniqueway. I read and understood manyessays written by different people and analyzed the writing styles used and writing organizations. Furthermore, I practiced writing the essays even when the essays were not assigned to me and discussed the same with my English teacher. At the end of the eighth grade, we had to write a very long and tough essay. The grade I received for my essay was higher than that of my friend's and my teacher's comment was that I possessed a great personal tones. On my friend's essay, the teacher commented that it lacked feelings that she couldn’t hear his inner voice in the essay. I managed to learn literacy better through my personal effort s as compared to getting sponsors. On the contrary, my friend's method of learning literacy through his past wealth and better background did not help much in the end.
Another time when I was volunteering to teach basic language skills to poor people, I found out that the fulfillment that learning brings to a person can be a great motive for pursuing literacy. I taught students of age 12-15 and initially they responded poorly to expectations. Neither did they grasp nor recalled what was taught in the classes. Slowly their curiosity came to life and they started asking questions. Students came to classes more out of curiosity than out of any benefit that the literacy will bring to them. Their curiosity consisted of a sense of wonder that came with an increased understanding of the world. Some reported becoming more confident in other areas of life because of their learning. A few reported their enjoyment of specific lessons and at the same time they started finding certain other aspects of teaching boring. Stimulation of curiosity and development of individual interest is one area that should be looked into regarding literacy. The level of literacy people can acquire should not be determined by wealth and exposure but by personal efforts and will to acquire literacy.