What Literacy...yours or mine?

For my second blog, I chose to follow up on a recent discussion of Literacy in my English class. First, I have to say to my instructor Ms. Wright, that there is no apology necessary, at least not to me, for suggesting the reading material on Literacy, titled “The Elements of Literacy”.

I must say that before this assignment I did not have any objective perspective on the “No Child Left Behind” Act. However, after reading materials in “The Elements of Literacy” and other data, plus our classroom discussions, I am at least from this point on, comfortable to ask critical questions and make some well-advised comments on such topic whenever it is being discussed.

From the reading, the NCLB Act mandates standardized testing, to attempt to solve literacy issues. To me the test-only approach is counterproductive. In that, not only does it not fully identify, quantify and measure literacy accurately and conclusively, but also it is punitive in many respects.

I certainly sides with the rationale, that; the use of sites to measure literacy is more effective and thus take into consideration many other variables in society. The “three Metaphors”, Adaptation, Power and The State of Grace, as outlined by Scribner, I found very interesting. In that, each one of these metaphors has each the same meaning in any society, however different levels of importance for different societies or cultures. Where I come from, literacy is a matter of Power, as define in the metaphor. We try our hardest to seek education in order to get somewhere in society no matter what that somewhere may be.  In addition, the tracks we take to get that education and ultimately that Power cannot be measured solely by testing our reading and mathematics proficiencies.