
In the last post we discussed the different images and words that the terms Literacy and Literature conjured up for you. The findings so far are very interesting indeed…and THANKS so much for this
Literacy – languages, letters, consonants and vowels, writing, alphabet, syllables, literate, illiterate, chalk, black boards, handwriting books, spelling, pronunciation, grammar, reading, writing, understanding, spelling, comprehension, pronunciation, ability, well-read, underprivileged/ lower working class, unemployed, on benefit, angry, rude, jobcentre, hopeless, illiterate, Skills for Life Literacy Programme, phonics, systems, power, control, need, class, letters, words, science, decoding
Literature – poems/poetry (x 2), novels (x 2), short-long stories, fictions, non-fictions, literature review, romanticism, realism, folklore, culture, reading, writing, classics, plays, descriptions, manuals, manuscripts, guides, privileged, posh, undergraduate/graduate, better off, Shakespeare, educated, art, beauty, emotion, craft, joy/rage, enjoyment, pleasure
We can read a lot from these words, some points I think…
- literacy is associated with ‘low culture’ while literature with ‘high culture’ – for comparisons of this idea compare and contrast e.g., tabloid / broadsheet newspapers, reproduced print / original artwork, Wikipedia / peer-reviewed journals and so on
- literacy is associated with the ‘badly educated’ in contrast to literature which is linked to the ‘well-educated’
- literacy carries negative connotations of control and poverty while literature points to positive associations of pleasure
- literacy is a skill (the ability to read and write), while literature is an art, an individual and cultural means of expression
- literacy is more generally associated with school or adult education classrooms while literature with higher education and outside classroom spaces
What happens when literacy meets literature in the school or adult education classroom? The answer to that one is that classrooms win, meaning…
…that whatever texts are brought into the classroom (whether they count as literature or not – a discussion for another day by the way), are reduced to classroom texts. The stories, the poems, the novels, the plays, the music, the nursery rhymes, become vehicles for an educational agenda which goes something like this…
a story becomes a reading comprehension
writing becomes a spelling test
a rhyme or poem becomes a phonics exercise
a play becomes an argument-based essay
and so on…
I think we need new spaces in education that allow for students to engage with texts of one form or another whether stories, poems, music, art, mathematics and so on that don’t end up reducing their true value and transformative potential. What do you think?
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.