Literacy matters. It really does. Now, I know that social media shouts at you at every turn and in every possible way that it doesn't, but literacy does matter.
Sadly, the news media teaches you wrong lessons about literacy daily. I mean, seriously, using fake words in titles to articles, such as "vols" or "photogs," makes me cringe and a part of my heart dies each and every time I see such egregious grammatical errors posted without thought for the harm they are doing to literacy in America. And then there is Hollywood and marketing and just about every form of literacy out there for consumption. I honestly doubt there is a single person in all those forms of media left who understands how to properly use pronouns or how to punctuate with quotation marks. SIGH.
Newspapers, newsletters, television shows, movies, news websites, blog posts, tweets, etc. are all filled with errors, even by professionals and those educated enough to not make them. In fact, it's fashionable to be incorrect and a social media faux pas to use proper grammar. But I hope that, one day, the tide will turn. That, one day, people will, once more, value the craftsmanship of proper syntax, semantics, and vocabulary in literacy acts.
In the meanwhile, I would be truly grateful if we could just work on using the pronouns "who" or "whom" with antecedents that are people as opposed to the pronouns "that" or "which." This is especially when your marketing campaign involves student activists. Even if the student is the one who wrote the speech with the improper pronoun use, editing is a valuable tool and lesson for the student to learn. [Yes, Unilever, I mean you!]
Ah, but I digressed.
Literacy is not merely reading, a mistake many people make. Literacy is READING, WRITING, LISTENING, and SPEAKING. Every single day, our lives are full of a plethora of literacy acts, that often include myriad texts. Paying attention to them is important. All literacy acts can be learning experiences and/or teachable moments. Each literacy encounter informs all the ones that follow.
Take the literacy act of READING: When parents would come to me worried about the books their children were reading, I would always tell them not to worry. Any reading is good. Now, of course there are a few caveats. Of course I do not advocate for pornographic or evil or otherwise inappropriate texts for children and young adults. But usually the complaint—at least when I was teaching—was about just how many Goosebumps books a child was reading, for example. Yes, the books are formulaic. Yes, read one and you've essentially read them all. The same holds true for many child series. But reading is a good thing, and eventually, the young reader will tire of the formula and crave something more sophisticated. For me, it took somewhere around 90 Nancy Drew books before I wanted more. Nine or 90 is okay.
Besides, R. L. Stine is a bit of a genius. He has shown readers what makes for a good story: 1) a well-constructed plot; 2) convincing characterization; 3) a worthwhile theme; and 4) an appropriate style. He also has shown readers that a successful formula will attract readers, keep them reading, and lead to a solid career as a writer. In his case, that formula is to write chapters in such a way that ending one is near impossible and entices the reader to start the next chapter before closing the book. All in all, R. L. Stine has made a positive contribution to literacy, even if the thought of reading one more Goosebumps books to your child makes you groan.
I will go on record stating that the single greatest act a parent can do for a child's educational success is to create and maintain a print rich environment in the home that promotes literacy experiences of all kinds by all who comprise the household. Thus, the single greatest obstacle to educational success for many children in America is the lack of a print rich environment at home, where adults and children alike regularly engage in literacy acts.
I find it sad that the educational Powers-That-Be in America have never been willing to make a coordinated and substantial investment in providing print rich environments in all homes and supporting parents in their own literacy development. Gazillions of dollars continue to be poured into the Head Start program, even though the government's own research has shown that gains Head Starts students make start to disappear around the the 3rd grade.
A friend of mine is moving to a town that has no public library. It's 2015 and libraries are not a key element of our society. Supporting literacy in the home and in the community is not a key element in our educational system. It makes no bloody sense to me why not. But, then again, no one ever asked me how to address the national literacy problem America faces.
Literacy matters. Grammar matters. Learning to communicate in myriad formats with clear and cohesive and correct words matters. Comprehension matters. Fluency matters. Automaticity matters. Listening skills matter. Synthesis matters. Analysis matters. Critical thinking matters. And the aspects of conversation matter.
I used to know more about those things. I had this burning desire, as I saw the decline of literacy all around me—an the appalling literacy skills in the business world once I left education—to do something. To write and teach and share in the hopes that I might at least help stem the tide in the ubiquitous egregious pronoun errors taking place in America. To bring back the appreciation of the careful craftsmanship of the written word. To help others value letters despite living in an instant communication world.
Now, my goal is simple: to shout at the world that LITERACY MATTERS—albeit somewhat feebly—by capturing the bits and pieces still left in my brain.
The cognitive dysfunction and decline I am facing has stayed my hand at picking up this task. In my personal blog, I find grammatical errors all the time. The me whom I used to be never made mistakes. Now, I make them all the time and am deeply embarrassed by them. If you spot one, please correct me. I will not like that you had to do so, but I will be truly grateful for the chance to have clean entries. Because, in the end, this is not about me or my compositional pride. It is about literacy.
Literacy matters.
