For my literacy narrative, I interviewed my mother. I hoped she would have an interesting perspective on literacy, because her parents were Baptist missionaries and she was raised in central Africa. Unfortunately for me, most of my mother’s education was pretty straightforward. The one interesting thing I did find was proof that my love of recreational reading definitely runs in the family, as evidenced by one of my mother’s anecdotes:

“Reading was my favorite thing. One year – maybe 4th – our teacher said we had to write a book report on every book we read. She didn’t realize how many books I read! After getting 5 or 6 book reports in one week she decided we only had to do 1 a week. Piece of cake.”

Hi everyone. My name is Steven Wyman, I’m a sophomore. I’m from a small town in the Sierra Nevada foothills called Sonora, about 45 minutes from Yosemite. I’m a TV, movie, and game nerd, and I love to engage in just about any kind of fiction.

A lot of my reading is fiction novels. My favorites are the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, as well as Douglas Adams’ classic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. I also enjoy reading and engaging in online conversations about all of my nerdy pleasures. Most of this reading is strictly for enjoyment, but there is a decent amount of literacy involved in simply navigating and participating in online discussion.

One of the big things I took away from the reading was the idea that our school system, as it is, aims to achieve a society where everyone is equally literate. It seemed to me to be an odd idea, because it seems so obvious that not everyone is ever going to have the same amount or kinds of literacy. As I thought about it, I was surprised to realize just how much our schools are striving to give everyone the exact same literacy capabilities. It was an interesting realization, and I’m not entirely sure what the implications may be. I’ll put more thought into it and maybe get back to you!