Literacy and Privilege

Through all the readings in the class, the two things that have really stood out for me are sponsorship and privilege. When I think of a social view of literacy, I think of all the people who have shaped how and why I read and write, my sponsors. From my parents to my teachers, I’ve had a lot of encouragement over the year to keep me motivated to pursue literary practices. However, sponsors are not always positive. Sponsors are influencers, whether that’s a positive or a negative influence. Socio-economic position can have an effect on how people interact with literacy in their lives. In Brandt’s piece, she discusses how there are “unequal conditions of literacy sponsorship that lie behind differential outcomes in academic performance.” Growing up in a middle class household, with two very educated parents, I had access to so many different books, my house is full of them. I had never really thought of this as privilege until recently, when I realized what this access has done for me in my life and how it is different from other people’s experiences. But I think that literacy practices are influenced by your sponsors stake in your achievements, despite what your socio-economic status may be. In my literacy narrative, I talked to my mom about her sponsors and their influence on her own literacy practices. Her parents encouraged her to read and write, and she in turn encouraged me. But her parents were parents were both raised very poor and literacy wasn’t something super valued in their homes. However with my mom and my aunt, my grandparents wanted them to succeed, and even though they didn’t have very much money, they took my mom and aunt to the library all the time. In the Brandt piece there was a case study about a girl who despite wanting to find books to read and wanted to do well in school, neither of her parents were really that encouraging because literacy wasn’t necessary in their lives. I find the ideas of access and sponsorship as relating to privilege really interesting and I hope to keep exploring these ideas in class and continue to develop my ideas of literacy.