literacy a love story

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Hope Crawford

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1103-002

April 28, 2011

Literacy: A Love Story

Deborah Brandt, the author of “Sponsors of Literacy,” defines a sponsor of literacy to be

“any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as

recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy-and gain advantage by it in some way (Brandt

166).” In twenty-first century America, being literate is something that people often take for

granted. I will admit that I am guilty of taking my own literacy for granted at times, as I cannot

remember in detail the process of my literacy education. Although I cannot remember many

exact details of my own literacy training, I can remember instantly the people and objects which

encouraged me become literate in given practices such as reading and writing print, reading

music, etc. - my personal sponsors of literacy. I had several sponsors of literacy, but my main

sponsors of literacy were my parents, teachers, and children’s television programs I viewed.

My parents’ literacy education, as they have described to me, was very difficult. Sadly,

my mother’s parents preferred her little brother over her and were no help to her while she was

learning to read as a child. My father grew up on a farm where he was encouraged to miss school

as a child in order to plow the fields which led to him not being fully literate until he was in

junior high. Feeling cheated by their parents in regards to their literacy as children, my parents

vowed to become my and my sister’s main sponsors of literacy. In fact, my parents were such a

huge part in my sister’s and my literacy that we all were reading simple books such as Cat in

the Hat before we entered kindergarden. I actually have a picture of myself reading a fifth



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grade history book to my kindergarden class and to several other curious teachers who later

praised my parents for being so helpful to my literacy. My parents sponsored me by buying me

tapes that are similar to today’s “My Baby Can Read” DVDs. These tapes would say a word

while showing the spelling of the word, show the action and encourage the viewer to say the

word and perform the action simultaneously. Another way that my parents encouraged my

literacy was to reward me every time I finished a book. I would jump at the chance to read a

book because I was always looking forward to the prize that came with successfully finishing it.

The prizes would range from a trip to McDonald’s to a new game for my Gameboy. By

rewarding my successful completion of a book, I soon became trained to enjoy reading which

has really helped me in the long run because I still, out of habit, jump at the chance to read a

good book. Even today, my parents are big sponsors of all forms of literacy for me because they

still reward me for the successful completion of goals related to literacy. For example, my father

has made a deal with me and my sisters that as long as he lives, if we bring home all A’s from

school, he will give us $100. It was fairly easy to earn the $100 my dad promised in middle and

elementary school, but when I got to high school, I realized that I had to work much harder to

earn the prize. Now that I am in college, the prize does not mean too much to me, but I still have

the drive to work hard because the thought of an easy $100 bill makes me put a little more effort

in to all of my schoolwork.

Even though my parents were and are still are the main sponsors of literacy in my life, the

teachers I have had throughout my school career have also been huge sponsors of literacy for me.

Teachers fall in to the category of sponsors who, as stated in Brandt’s definition, gain advantage

by it in some way. The advantage that they gain is obviously money, but there have been a few

selected teachers I have had that do not seek the money reward as much as they seek the success



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of their students. The differences between teachers who seek nothing but the financial rewards

and those who rather see student success are found within their teaching methods. Teachers who

seek nothing but money are the ones who discourage class discussion, creativity and

individualism. Although they are still considered sponsors of literacy because they achieve the

main goal of teaching the material, they are not as helpful to student success in the long-run. For

example, an student whose teacher simply gives his/her students assignments and letter grades

is a student who will not retain the material being covered for a long period of time which can

prove to be a detriment to the student’s literacy in the long-run. For example, I once had an

English teacher - my sixth grade year - who discouraged all types of creativity. This teacher

would simply give students assignments, read the paper, and give us number grades based on

what she thought we deserved. This was the English class which focused on how to use proper

grammar. Although I did fairly well in the class, I did not retain any of the information taught in

that class and I eventually had to be taught proper grammar all over again the next year. On the

other hand, students who have teachers who encourage class discussion will retain information

much longer because class discussion is much more interesting and hands-on than just listening.

I had a teacher like this my junior and senior years of high school. She would ask her students

what they thought they deserved and had a class discussion every day of class. I never received a

letter grade in her class without justification. Because of this teacher’s method of teaching, I was

able to retain all of the information learned in her class. Teachers are sponsors of literacy in areas

other than just alphabetic literacy: history teachers hope for their students to become literate in

past events, band teachers hope their students become literate in reading music and playing

instruments, and so on. Whatever the subject is, teachers are sponsors of literacy in their own

subject.



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Television has become one of the major sponsors of literacy since the late twentieth

century until now. When I was a child, almost all of children’s television programs are meant to

teach a child something they did not know before. “Sesame Street” helped teach me how to

count, “Gullah Gullah Island” taught me how to sing, “Blues Clues” helped teach me how to

read, and many other shows either taught or helped teach me something that I did not previously

know. Because I have not watched any children’s programming in a very long time, I conducted

an experiment to prove that children’s television programs are still sponsors of literacy by

watching four non-consecutive hours “Nick Jr” - the only program offered on the campus’ cable

network that is meant for children. While watching I took notes of what I saw and on almost

every program that I watched, the characters taught the viewers how to count to at least ten, to

spell out simple words such as “cat,” and how to identify written letters and numbers. On more

“advanced” programs I watched, a foreign language was being taught. The episode of the show

“Dora the Explorer” taught viewers how to count to ten in English and Spanish, to say simple

phrases such as “hello” in Spanish, and how to identify the primary colors (red, orange, yellow,

green, blue, indigo, and violet) in Spanish. I was very surprised that a program meant for toddlers

was teaching Spanish lessons to its viewers and I wondered if any other program was designed to

teach children a foreign language. I was extremely surprised to discover that there is a program

that teaches simple Japanese, this show being “Ni Ho Kai-Lan.” This show was actually

interesting to me because before I watched, I had no idea how to count to ten in Japanese. By

conducting this experiment, I believe that it is safe to say that children’s television programs are

still aimed to teach literacy to children whether it be number, alphabetic, Spanish, or Japanese

literacy.



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My sponsors of literacy can be found in many different settings but the main ones that I

attribute to my literacy is my parents, teachers, and children’s television programing. Having

these sponsors makes me very well equipped with the tools I need to succeed and I feel fortunate

to have these sponsors. I believe that if everyone takes the time to examine their own sponsors of

literacy, then they will become less likely to take it for granted.

Works Cited:

Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Eds.

Wardle

and Downs. Boston: Bedford, 2011. 406-26. Print.

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