The readings in chapter Five and Six come at the most appropriate time of an election year, when the primaries are in full swing. The debates are heated and the rhetoric is free flowing like a raging flood. The whole discussion thus far has been about the what and how of the various viewpoints on literacy. As it relates the real world of today the need to be authentically literate (proper literacy) is absolutely dire... I use the word dire because of what potentially hangs in the balance... I'm reminded of a movie line (Gladiator) when the leader was discussing what needed to be done with his general... "Rome is the Mob, not the Senate, satisfy the Mob and All of Rome will be yours" (paraphrased as I recall), which leads me to this thought and quote form Chapter Five, "A good society is "an open quest" calling for the active participation of all citizens, because "the common good is pursuit of the good in common"" (Lankshear, page 84). This all leads me in several different different directions all at the same time... on one hand their is the idea that if the citizenry is wholly literate then they possess the skills to discern their way through the rhetoric and settle in on the "common good." Yet on another hand the citizenry is only partially has the skills of "proper literacy" to discern their way through the rhetoric then the idea of the common good has less impact. Still, the other hand where the majority of the citizenry has "improper literacy" with very little to no skills to understand the rhetoric then a candidate that understands that citizenry is in a position to tell the citizenry what they need and therefore the only "common good" becomes what the candidate says is good. I do Not want to get political and the task was to make a connection to classroom, so my connection to classroom comes from the standpoint of curriculum. When a teacher is hired for a position, for the most part, the curriculum for that position has already been defined. There may be some places for the teacher to interject some different points or timing of the countywide curriculum map, but most of the what and when have been decided. The connection for me as I read and reread Chapter Five comes in form of constantly challenging and reflecting on the curriculum standards and objectives to ensure they accomplishing the goals and making changes or alterations where they are Not. Several places within the chapter the author was commenting on what I took to be a complacent view of those in a position of "power" when the need for change or expansion obvious. Which leads me back to the quote in my chosen quote... "The common good is pursuit of the good in common."
Is this Active engagement?
Chapter Six, New Capitalism led me down this road... because when I think about my classroom and the students that have and will pass through it... I want them to leave with the tools they need to understand their world today and in the future. The quote... "Increasingly, the critical dimension of knowledge work is valued mainly, if not solely, in terms of value-adding economic potential."(Lankshear, page 131) In this new age of intellectual property and global economies a company's employees that have a working understanding of the macro-social processes that exist in the form of the 4 identified literacies become very valuable assets. My second visual comes in the form of a pic and a TEDTalk. (The talk is well worth the time)
Lankshear, Colin, and Michele Knobel. Literacies: Social, cultural and historical perspectives. Peter Lang, 2011.
TEDTalk Morgan Spurlock,TED 2011 Filmed Mar2011 The Greatest TED Talk Ever SoldTh
2 comments:
I enjoyed reading your post and am glad to see I am not the only one making a connection to the election season. These chapters and the election season seem to go hand and hand because during this time we use our new technologies to educate ourselves on the candidates we want to vote for. The picture you chose from chapter 6 is great and is exactly what I do in those situations. I guess that's why I like the online learning environment so much. It also helps with work when someone gives yo a task that you're not entirely sure on, but know that if you go Google it for a few minutes you can figure out what needs to be done.
I like your comment, "...if the citizenry is wholly literate then they possess the skills to discern their way through the rhetoric and settle in on the 'common good.' " It makes me wonder whose responsibility it is in society to make sure the public is wholly literate, and I think, up to this point, it's been a responsibility relegated to the schools. The problem is, though, that public schools are not well-designed, aren't as relevant as they should/could be, and are not funded well enough to fulfill their purpose. In this election, we are seeing the results of decades of that deficiency. I don't know if the public knows what the "common good" is anymore, because I don't know how much of society is wholly literate.
Post a Comment