Who is sponsoring whom?

While it may sound crazy, I’ve really come to like Brandt’s idea of “sponsorship” and its influence on literacy. It has not only enhanced the idea that literacy is a social concept, but it has also made me reflect on how I have developed my own literacy, as well as how the evolution of sponsorship through technology, power, culture, economic standing, and social status will affect how the future generations develop literacy. However, it also makes me wonder about the negative affect that sponsors have on us, since it seems that the purpose of sponsors (not all but some) are to get us to that “next level” for the sake of getting to the next level, versus engaging us to develop our own literacy just for the sake of our own personal development.

One of the quotes that really stuck out to me in this article was this:

“Like Little Leaguers who wear the logo of the local insurance agency on their uniforms, not out of concern for enhancing the agency’s image but as a means for getting to play ball, people throughout history have acquired literacy pragmatically under the banner of others’ cause”(168).

Okay, so part of the reason why I liked this quote so much is because it has a baseball reference, but the other reason why I thought that it was so intriguing because it made me question why we choose to associate in certain “literacy communities”. It’s clear that we must engage in certain sponsors of literacy in order to socially navigate through life (this has been made quite clear). But what about the sponsors that we choose to engage in in order to enhance our literacy? For example, I feel that it was my choice to attend college. My parents didn’t force me; sure I felt societal pressure that I had to get a college degree in order to climb up the ladder of social power, but I still would say that it was ultimately my decision. Five years in the English Education program has given me the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of literacy sponsors, whether it was because of a job, or a class, or an instructor, or even one of my workshop students. I’ve gotten two minors in Linguistics and Spanish, a TESOL certificate, numerous scholarships, I am an International Society Member, am about to graduate with a BA in English Education…sounds like I’m giving you my resume, doesn’t it? That’s the thing though! I can’t help but ask whether or not I have engaged in all of these “literacy communities” for self improvement, or to just put one more thing on that resume so I can climb further up the ladder.

Every Christmas, Birthday, Easter, even Valentine’s day, I get a handwritten card from my grandma. I get so excited when I see her graceful handwriting gliding across the Hallmark card. And she doesn’t do these things because she must. She does them because it brings her joy to engage in this literacy practice. But how often do we actually witness people writing in a Birthday card for the simple joy of writing how you feel to a mom, dad, brother, sister, lover, etc. I personally give a little groan when I think of all of the ‘thank you’ letters I’m going to have to write after graduation! I can’t help but wonder, is the little voice in my head that says “can’t put that on a resume” holding my back from engaging in literacy practices that actually contribute to human interactions and relationships? Are we so devoted to the idea that we must gather literacy for others, instead of for ourselves? And how will this change as technology becomes more and more embedded into our culture? Is the purpose of sponsorship’s simply for climbing that social ladder instead of self development?