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In her article Sponsors of Literacy, Deborah Brandt attempts to explain to students the history and importance of literacy and how it has become so necessary in society and how individuals achieve such high levels of literacy through many different sponsors. She argues that literacy has come so far from what it has started as because in the early days of reading and writing only wealthy, white males could have the privilege of literacy. African Americans along with many other races and women were not given an opportunity to learn how to read and write. Today, anyone who can afford an education may receive one, including races of all types.

 

5. Branch was a European American who was the child of a professor and a real estate executive. He had much access to sponsorship because both of his parents were well off. In his school, they had computers hooked up to Stanford University and when he was 12 he was given his own computer. He was being taught to read and write by parents as well as in school and he was practicing literacy on his computer. He also had the opportunity to go up to town and explore the stores and learn about new things there.

Lopez was a Mexican American whose parents both had a degree from a technical college. Her father worked as a shipping and receiving clerk while her mother worked at a bookstore. The city was much farther away from them so they did not have the privilege of going to town so easily. Her siblings did not know how to read and write therefore she taught herself. She had the advantage of getting books at the bookstore where her mother worked.

I agree with Brandt because I feel that citizens of different races and lower classes had a more difficult time finding the education therefore could not provide a suitable education for their own children.

 

1. I have a situation that is in between both Branch and Lopez. My parents were able to afford an education for me, like branch but they were not wealthy and did not receive a college education, like in Lopez’s situation. I had access to computers and reading materials that I could practice with. My primary sponsors were my school, which taught me religious literacies as well as academic literacies, and my parents who also helped me with my academic and religious literacies. I think these literacies are adequate considering I have done well in school as well as overall in life.

 

I felt that I learned much information from this article and that I can agree with most of what Brandt has explained. It was interesting to learn about how far literacy has actually come because I think many people take advantage of their language and education. I appreciate taking time to read about where we started off as a society. I learned that there may be many other literacies out there that I could possibly have the opportunity to learn about.