Both Lamont Carey and the Perry article focused heavily on storytelling and its importance within our society and among different cultures. While both texts dealt with different groups of people, they both were intended to show how storytelling can be used to make us aware of situations that exist within our community and the world.
For Carey, telling “his story” enabled the audience to see the injustices done among many American children, regardless of race. For me, the most profound statement was when Carey explained that his inability to read, write, and spell (illiteracy) had teachers blaming other teachers, who then blamed the board of education, who then blamed parents, who finally blamed the kid. Illiteracy isn’t a child’s fault…it lies in the fact that our educational system along with the community and parents have not adequately partnered with the student to meet his or her needs. When we aren’t doing our jobs, we can’t even begin to recognize and provide interventions to help a child achieve and feel confidence and success within the academia, along with other areas of his/her life. By the end of Carey’s story, we have a child who was not only injured physically but emotionally and mentally when he felt that he no longer had anything to offer his family. Educators need to instill in students avenues to feel like they are making a difference for their families and home communities, and literacy is a major avenue for doing so.
The use of literacy to make a difference becomes evident when Perry explains how the orphaned Sudanese boys of her study began to transform storytelling, which is a form or genre of literacy, from its traditional purposes to more proactive means of making others aware of the situations that existed in their home communities. This was accomplished as they relayed their personal experiences in oral and written forms, therefore establishing the importance of giving a child the gift of expression through literacy where they can make sense of their personal experiences in order to establish their identities and convey meaning of themselves to the world. Perry’s article show that literacy practices take many different forms and change over time. Storytelling began as a means to pass down cultural histories and traditions as reading and writing only existed in formalized education, but eventually, its audience, purpose, and how they were told changed because the three male participants resettled in a foreign culture that didn’t share the same stories but was eager to hear their experiences in order to learn about the injustices occurring in Sudan so they could proactively participate in a fight for human rights (pg 338). Storytelling became a push for change that was also written down so that it won’t be forgotten. As the Sudanese orphans became displaced, written communication became necessary to keep in touch with surviving family members, making literacy important within their lives.
To adequately sum up both Carey and Perry, all storytellers recognized the need and importance for literacy and its various forms. Both believed, as Perry stated it best, that being literate equaled having access to power. Without literacy, other opportunities exist to achieve much wanted power and prestige, but they can easily be disrupted as made evident in the physical injury of Carey’s storyteller. Literacy seems to be the only rock-solid way of achieving success among society, especially in what many of our articles have referred to as a “white society.”
Melissa Riley
Comments (5)
Melissa,
I thought of several things while reading your post, including the importance of knowing how to read and write, and how it is directly correlated to being successful in our society. One has to know the very basics to be able to fill out a job application.
I thought of storytelling and how it is a form of literacy. I thought it would be neat to have my students, who come from varied backgrounds, tell their story. Thinking about a multicultural awareness approach, it would be an interesting assignment for the students to tell how their family came to live in the United States.
Posted by Carol Holt | June 17, 2011 10:23 AM
Posted on June 17, 2011 10:23
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement that literacy seems to provide the most solid pathway toward success in society. The Lost Boys seem to have realized that, and demonstrated a great deal of motivation and determination in their quest to be successful citizens in the community they settled into.
It seemed to me that Carey realized the importance of reading and writing, too, because he referenced them repeatedly in his poem. For some reason, though, he was not successful in learning those skills, and it appeared that he felt like a fraud inside because, as he said, “I can’t read or write.” Throughout the performance he talked about his athletic successes, his family’s pride in him, followed by the statement “But I can’t read and write.” Somehow he was “passed along” through school without learning what he needed to know, quite likely because of his athletic successes – how many students have we all seen this happen to? We, as educators, are not doing these students any favors by expecting less from them academically just because they play ball well.
As a parent of children who have been strong athletes throughout high school, I have seen parents who pushed their children to the max, athletically, because they really believed that they could “play at the next level.” It is really easy to fall into that trap...but in truth, so few children actually go on the play at the college level, and even fewer play at the professional level, that it is totally unrealistic for those students to plan on that level of success, they NEED to have other skills to assure their future. And even IF they attain that level of success, as Carey learned, they are only an injury away from disaster. The fact that so many children actually do get through school without learning to read and write is, in my mind, an indictment of our school system.
It is hard to know where the breakdowns occur, but, clearly there are problems within the system. I believe that we need to examine how students like Carey get through, not to assign blame necessarily, but to learn how to prevent this from happening to others. If we don’t reflect – and make changes in our practices - in this “No Child Left Behind” era, we will continue leaving children behind.
Posted by Marlee Wright | June 17, 2011 1:51 PM
Posted on June 17, 2011 13:51
Marlee,
It's sad that students realize reading and writing is the path to success, yet educators can't seem to connect them to it! When you mentioned that parents are often the driving force behind kids and athletics, I wholeheartedly agree with you that few are good enough to make it at a college level and even fewer in the professional leagues. Just another way of seeing the pressures that Carey was talking about in regards to the expectations of his family. I think that families see the need for reading and writing in order to succeed, along with students and teachers. However, the athletics seems to be an easier and quicker way to achieve that success. I think it's great that many schools require grades to be at a certain level in order for a player to continue to play for the team. In fact, I'm often surprised to discover that some professional athletes majored in academic areas that require a lot of effort and intellect in learning to achieve mastery. This only reinforces the need for students to focus on academics regardless of athletic abilities.
Posted by Melissa Riley | June 17, 2011 4:29 PM
Posted on June 17, 2011 16:29
You couldn’t be more right when you talk about how literacy is correlated with having access to power and success in our world today. Kids need to know how to read and write despite what career path, whether it be academic, sports or otherwise, they choose because athletic prowess can be taken away in the blink of an eye and without literacy, there is no back up plan. It’s our job as teachers to make sure students have this knowledge so that they are able to fall back on it even if they should choose to think they might not need it at first.
Posted by Kim Strzelecki | June 18, 2011 5:08 PM
Posted on June 18, 2011 17:08
Melissa,
Have you read anything by Paolo Friere? He writes about critical literacy, which is what your post is all about -- using literacy as transformation, to send messages about inequities. Friere has been quoted as saying, "You must be able to read the word and read the world." The same could be said for writing and speaking, in these readings for this week. Brilliant post!
Posted by Dr. Jackson | June 20, 2011 11:33 AM
Posted on June 20, 2011 11:33