A G.A.T.E. to Literature

Hi all! My name is Lillian Butzow. I go by Lily (yes like the flower). I grew up in a small town in Northern California called Redwood Valley. I am currently a junior in the English Studies major.  I was an English major with a minor in International Studies at my first University. I attended Southern Oregon University for one quarter, was unsatisfied with the experience, so I decided to save my parents some money and go to community college in my home town. I attended Mendocino College for the remainder of my first two years of school. I have an AA in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Humanities. (My school’s English AA program took upwards of three years to complete.)

I love to read, and I always have. When I was in elementary school I was miserable because I was so far ahead of most of the rest of the students in my school, so I was tested to be accepted into Gifted and Talented Education (G.A.T.E.). I was the youngest person to get into the program, so I was not only challenged academically in the new environment, but socially. I had to take a bus on my own to a middle school when I was in second grade, and so I found ways to not be so bored and lonely. I read. I read everything I could get my hands on.

Even though I was reading some pretty advanced literature for my age, I was told that my form of literacy, which I personally think fits the classical (old) definition of literacy, was getting in the way of my education. Even through high school I was reading books through the classes that were too easy for me. I would listen to the first part of the lesson, then once I realized that I already understood the concept, I would bury my nose in a book. I was told that this was a habit that would get me into trouble in the future, and that got me in trouble quite a few times in school. After years and years of teachers yelling at me to pay attention and stop reading, it became kind of like aversion therapy. I felt like every time I picked up a book, I was going to get yelled at or get in trouble.

Szwed talks about how maintaining an academically oriented definition of literacy is a failure on the part of teachers, not on the part of students who don’t fit into that definition. Even though I was a voracious reader, which should be something that teachers should encourage and help to support, I was pushed to stop because it got in the way of the academic literacy practices. I feel that not only do teachers fail students who don’t read as much as their definition of literacy says they should, but they also fail people who read too much. By having a limited view of what people should and shouldn’t read to be considered properly literate, they fail. Szwed’s point about accepting all types of literacy is something that each and every aspiring teacher should have to memorize and take to heart before they can get their credential.