Sponsors of Literacy Draft 2

8/3/2019 Sponsors of Literacy Draft 2

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Shannon Downey Downey 1

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1103, Fall 2011

September 22, 2011

Deborah Brandt identifies sponsors of literacy as “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) Personally, I like to look at

them as the people, things, and emotions that lead us in our journey to not only being literate, but

having a positive or negative connotation of reading and writing. These sources come directly

from the answers to the question “How did I learn to read and write?” Brandt makes sure to

include in her definition that sponsors of literacy can also be those agents who withhold from us

the tools of literacy. In many cases, such as my own, this is a crucial detail to remember in that

the withholding of information, sources, or people can light a fire in one’s self to branch out into

literacy like never before. My journey is one that is still in progress; a story that has yet to come

to fruition. As I find myself at a pivotal point upon this expedition, I wonder both how I got to

this point, including sponsors from the past, and where I will travel in the future, including

sponsors from the present and future.

I can easily recall early memories of my own literacy. As a young reader, the pressure

was on. Accelerated Reader programs reassured the who’s who of the elementary social ladder.

Children competed against each other to for the highest number of points as individuals.

Teachers, desperate to improve their own social ranking, competed with their peers for the



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highest number of points as a class. Reading was somewhere in between a hobby and a chore,

and in fact, I would consider it in this context to be a sport. After all, thanks to our teachers and

the bribes that they provided, there were prizes for the winners.

As it was, reading consumed large parts of my daily routine; not because each book took

excessive amounts of time, but because there was an excessive amount to read. The goal was to

read fast and understand fully. Completing the book was only half the battle, though; because of

course

there would be a test. When it came to selection of books, those worth more points

always won my affection, and anything worth less than ten just wasn’t worth my time. Is that to

say that novellas, short stories, and “easy reads” were poor choices of literature? Absolutely not,

however, the Accelerated Reader program was setting me up to think so. At such a young,

vulnerable age, I did what I had to do to get by in the classroom, to make the grades that made

Mom and Dad proud, and to beat Jane Doe when it came time for the monthly tally. If that meant

reading books from a pre-selected list, then so be it. That’s just the way it was. What I didn’t see

was that the program I had so readily accepted as a necessity was setting me up for failure by

withholding the literature that I truly loved and enjoyed reading. It instead forced me to read

pieces that just could not capture my attention in a meaningful way. The Accelerated Reader

program, as I’ve demonstrated, taught me that reading was not for fun, but instead for

competition habit, and a grade.

By the time I got to middle school, the Accelerated Reader program was not an integral

part of the curriculum. It was instead a sponsor of my literacy, because as a result I could fully

appreciate the privilege of indulging in works that interested me. With the absence of the



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program , there was no reason to check the inside of the front cover ensuring the ten point

minimum, no color coded spines indicating reading level, and most importantly no test. After a

few weeks of reading without these constraints, I began to notice a trend: I had not checked out

one work of fiction from the media center. I had read about sharks, tornadoes, oceans and clouds,

Floridian history, and William McKinley, but nothing that existed only in the realm of my

imagination. It was then that I found what made me happy: Non-fiction, works that lead to

discovering truths. So, in a way, I had discovered a truth about myself. I absolutely, positively

loved to learn. I could no longer fathom “wasting” my time reading about something completely

imaginary, and instead relished the fact that through my reading I was learning about the world.

This insatiable desire to learn was without a doubt a sponsor of my literacy. It could be said that

fiction was not of interest to me because I did not feel the need to “escape” from my reality, and

instead savored every bit of it.

One possible explanation of my affinity for non-fiction was the media I was presented

with throughout my childhood. As I can remember, there was always literature around the house,

however it was never a novel, poem, or short story. Instead it took the form of magazines,

brochures, and newspapers, which I excitedly read. This was not to say that I didn’t have an

expansive collection of children’s books, because I did, but I was always more interested even at

a young age in reading the same types of literature as my older family members. In fact, I have

no memory of any family member, immediate or extended, reading works of fiction until I was

nearly an adult. Throughout my childhood, books were purchased for me and reading was

certainly encouraged, but there was never a role model whose footsteps I could follow in. The



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presentation of a certain type of literature throughout my childhood sponsored me to read non-

fiction as a first choice later in life.

From middle school on, I read every book on sharks contained within the walls of our

school media center, as well as the books my very mother purchased me such as “Guinness

World Records”, “How It’s Made”, and “Stories of the Titanic.” I was fortunate enough to have

a family that was ever supportive of my academic endeavors. The accepting and encouraging

environment in which I was raised was a strong sponsor of my literacy. Since then, I have read

books about a number of subjects such as early American conquests, wedding planning, politics,

and crime, never fearing that what I was reading was not relevant or “good enough”.

Finally, I consider what kind of sponsor, if any, I will be to my own children. I hope to

encourage them to read and write as much as they possibly can, be supportive as my mother has

been for me, and provide them with a positive role model to follow. Some of these things come

from the result of methods that have benefitted me, and others are things that I have wished for

or brought upon myself. In a way, this inner desire to mold and shape my future children is a

sponsor in and of itself.

As I write, I am not the most eager reader or a “stand-out” writer, but I do appreciate the

gifts that I have been given through the ability to do both of the aforementioned. It is a common

misconception that everyone can read and write, yet it truly is a privilege to be thankful for.

There are people in our very own backyards without this ability that we so often take for granted,

and because of that I have learned to be thankful to the people and institutions, good or bad, that



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have taught me what I know today. From Accelerated Reader to an insatiable desire to learn,

from the literature in my childhood home to my very own children, I thank the sponsors of my

literacy for providing me with this most desirable ability.

Documents

Sponsors of Literacy Draft 2