11/14 Blog

How would I describe how my thoughts and feelings have changed about writing, literacy and education in general? Well obviously they have changed a lot from when I first started this semester. I've discovered that there is much much more to literacy than the basic dictionary definition that I always assumed it was. It turns out that it is much more than just the ability to read and write. There are so many other factors that are involved like discourse (a word that if I never hear again it may be too soon :p) and the many layers of it with reading, writing, context and actions and appearance. It's not like I've been totally ignorant of the cultural gaps that are there when it comes to a person being a total literate master in any language. Only a fool would pretend that socially and culturally there may be a struggle but with Gee's thoughts on how the Primary Discourse is the reason for a person being held back in Secondary Discourse I never would have guessed. I've always been led to believe that a person succeeds if they want to sometimes they lose their past along the way sometimes if they're lucky they don't. Now when it comes to education that is one thing that I don't believe that I have changed on. I've always known writing to be important and I've always known that teachers have things that they need to be aware of when it comes to teaching like not being biased or letting first impressions take over. These are challenges and I believe that I am up for facing these challenges. I want to teach social studies courses so I have to be culturally sensitive but the fact that I want to delve into Geography does allow me an easier time to conquer this than other subjects. Obviously I don't know everything, I don't even know half of everything when it comes to writing, literacy and education but lucky for me I love learning and I never tire of it.