Literacy is not just being able to read and write. As shown in the reading, “Lesson From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge From an African-American Female Growing Up in Rural Alabama,” the author Bessie House-Soremekun describes her literacy. While living in Alabama after the Civil Rights Movement House-Soremekun developed several forms of literacy.
Formal literacy was a form of her literacies learned from her family. Formal literacy refers to the various types of knowledge and knowing that is acquired through formal educational modes and activities (e.g., attending school and reading texts) (House-Soremekun 60). House-Soremekun had a middle class family that valued education highly. All her family went to college and became teachers. Reading became the author’s favorite hobby; which made her so advance in school. Her teachers also helped in shaping her literacy in particular though was her first grade teacher Mrs. Annie P. Sykes. The author stated, “Many of the things I learned in her class remain with me even today” (House-Soremekun 60). The author was so intellectual that her fourth grade teacher wanted to skip her one grade, but her mother denied the offer. Her mother felt that children needed to stay with there own age group.
As the author continues to speak on her literacy and how it was obtained I thought of my own. My mother is a strong woman. She is even stronger in the lord. She taught me the importance of having a relationship with God. By her instilling that in me I consider myself religion literate. That same woman also was unable to finish college because she became pregnant with me. So she instilled in me the importance of a college degree. My point is just as the author is trying to convey your upbringing and family shape your literacies. So don’t hide your background embrace it for it is the reason you are who you are.
By: Shaniqua Burton
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