Literacy

Literacy, in the most simple of terms, is the ability to read. It is not only the ability to read texts, however. It is the ability to read...period. There are an unlimited number of literacies (e.g. digital literacy, mathematical literacy, interpersonal literacy, etc.). Literacy allows people to read and understand and interact with their respective environments. The reading involved in that statement may not always be textual. If person has a complex understanding of what is going on around them, I believe that person to be literate.

This definition becomes more difficult when one considers that some people cannot read text at all. Is a person who cannot read text illiterate? I guess my answer would be yes, unfortunately. I feel that illiteracy is not necessarily a direct opposite to literacy. Society tells us that a person who is illiterate cannot read text and I may have to agree to a certain extent. I can remember a time when I couldn't read. The world seemed like a melee of symbols and scribbles that I could not understand. Without the ability to read the most simple text, a person is missing out on so much of what the world has to offer.  A person who cannot read can understand the world, indeed, but I don't know that I would call that person literate.

Just learning what those crazy symbols mean does not make a person literate, however. For example, I wouldn't consider my five-year-old self literate. I could read, sure, but I couldn't yet truly understand what I was reading. I think the first step to literacy is learning how to read text, and the sky's the limit from there on out. A person who can read a situation but cannot read text may be literate in a different way, but literacy for that person is not a stand-alone word. This person could be considered situationally literate, for example, but could not be considered straight-up literate.

I believe that literacy is something ever person strives for. People who do not know how to read have not yet attained the tools to become literate, and that will not get them far in life. These people may achieve the level of literacy that they are satisfied with. They may feel like they have a good-enough understanding of their surroundings without knowing what the symbols in books mean. That may be just fine for some people, but I know I wouldn't have been able to tolerate that.

I feel that this post got a tad out-of-whack, but what a confusing topic! I thought, "yeah this is going to be an easy one" but then I started and kind of got lost. I am not entirely sure what my point is, but I do believe that every person benefits from learning to read text. Literacy allows us to broaden and interact with our world.