literacy narrative first draft 9/12/13

8/13/2019 Literacy Narrative First Draft 9/12/13

1/4

Bingler 1

Benjamin Bingler

Professor Hinnant

English 1101

12 September, 2013

How my Social Upbringing Affects my Literacy

Back when I was young, my mom took me to my local library and signed me up for a

summer reading program. While I didnt know this at the time, I would fall in love with reading

and writing that summer all due to this program. Thanks to my familys ability to provide me

with reading and writing opportunities, my childhood was filled with reading and writing

experiences that made me the writer I am today. My reading, writing, and communication was

affected due to my social upbringing and the opportunities I was given when I was a child.

First and foremost, reading has always been a large part of my life. While my reading

for fun habits have begun to taper off as I have gotten older, I used to be absolutely in love with

books and reading in general. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the summer reading

program that I participated in as a child threw me into the wonderful world of novels and stories.

Stacked up against writing and other forms of communication, reading always seemed to prevail

in winning my interest. There was a time in my life (in my elementary school years), where it

was rare to find me without my nose in a book. I just absolutely could not get enough of it,

whether it was novels, informative books, or even newspapers. While some of this could be

linked to my curiosity, it would be crazy to deny the opportunities I was given some of the credit


2/4

Bingler 2

for my passion for reading. W ithout the social status of my family and parents, its possible I

would have never actually been so into literature. For example, had I grown up in inner city

charlotte with a family in poverty, I would have had nowhere near the amount of access and

encouragement to pick up a book and read. Along with these programs where I was given

incentive to read, I also had access to a public library that my parents would take me to whenever

they could as well as a library in my school, stocked full of books. Another way that my familys

social and financial status helped me was by my parents often buying and supplying me with

new things to read, or things that would help me with reading. Those with a lower financial

position might not have the extra money to spend on such things, which would influence thechild to not be as interested in literature. Finally, due to my parents economic status, I grew up

in a safe middle class neighborhood where I was surrounded by kids just like me. Because of this

middle class suburb, I had the opportunity to go to schools that were full of great teachers, plenty

of supplies, and other kids who were excited to learn. The schools I attended during my

childhood is who I give most of the credit to for my reading literacy.

I never had a passion for writing like I did for reading. For me, writing was always

something that I was supposed to do, rather than something I was willing to do. Despite my

usually negative attitude towards writing, my familys social situation still made sure that I was

able to write when I needed to. Just like with reading, I was given the chance to write whenever I

wanted. My parents always supplied me with paper and writing utensils, and encouraged me to

write just like any good middleclass parents would. Again, their financial position allowed me to

go to schools where my education was put first and I had all that was required to learn. In these

prestigious schools, I was taught how to write, what to write about, and about different types of

writings I could do. F rom the start, I dont think I gave writing a fair chance. Because I never


3/4

Bingler 3

really wrote for fun, or just wrote about stuff that I wanted to write about, I disliked writing only

because I was being forced to do it. All the way from elementary school up to my last semester

in high school, I was given assignments with specific instructions on what to write, how to write

it, and how long I had until it must be turned in. Not even my financial and social status could

help with this, I simply have always hated writing. Of course with anything involving school,

there are always exceptions. There were a couple assignments that some of my favorite teachers

gave me that I thoroughly enjoyed writing about. Surprisingly enough, some of these were

papers involving research and analysis. I came to realize that for me to enjoy the writing, I

needed to be interested in the topic. The schools I went to did a good job of teaching megrammar and syntax, which will help me for the rest of my life. However I dont think I will ev er

just like writing.

Ever since I learned to speak, my parents have been getting on me about proper ways to

talk. Like reading and writing, my parents played a large role in my attitude towards verbal

communication. As many of my friends and people that are close to me know, I love to talk.

With the exception of some slang here and there, and maybe some grammatical errors, I speak

the English language well. Most of the thanks for this goes to my moms occupation. My mom is

a speech pathologist for elementary school kids. This ultimately affected how I talk because

whenever I made a mistake in my speech, she was there to annoyingly correct it. After years of

this occurring, I developed communication skills that will suffice when talking to others who are

literate. Also, my parents wanted me to be polite and proper when addressing certain people, to

give off a good impression. I am grateful for this because of how much I have used it. Job

interviews, speaking to elders, and talking to teachers all require being polite and proper, which

my parents made sure to stress the importance of. This has not only given me an advantage over


4/4

Bingler 4

those who were not taught these social skills, but it also makes me feel better and more confident

about myself knowing that I have the literacy to get places in life. My moms middle class job

influenced me to develop my verbal communication past the point of being literate, which I am

grateful for.

There are many factors that influence, and have influenced, my literacy today. While all

of these factors have shaped my reading, writing, and verbal literacy, the factor that most had a

role in the development of my literacy has to be the Financial and Social Status of my family.

Since I grew up in a good environment and had parents who were determined to give me a good

education and a good future, I truly believe that my current level of literacy today can be

attributed to my privileged childhood.

literacy narrative first draft 9/12/13

Documents