Tyler Demery Reflection I thought this paper was a decent start to my English class.

It was not required to be long and it was a simple subject. My only issue was that since this was a topic that I didnt particularly find interesting, I had a hard time thinking of what I could say next. I feel that if I was able to choose the topic then I would have been able to write a longer paper that would have required more research. Since this paper was an opinion piece that would vary from person to person, I found it difficult to write out a lengthy paper.

Tyler Demery The Evolution of Literacy Literacy is one of the most valued traits in American culture. It is used to bridge racial and social gaps and is often used as a basis to test someones intelligence. To me, literacy is the ability to exchange ideas through a language in both written and spoken form. This can include several mediums of communication such as essays and poems, all the way down to speeches. There is no universal guideline to judge literacy. This is primarily because everyone has his or her own unique way of learning literacy. A persons idea of literacy is molded from several different sources. This can include the school a person attended, a persons environment, and even the news. Literacy is a continuously changing mentality that will continue to change even 100 years in the future, just as it has over the past 100s of years. Over the years, the bare minimum of what is considered literate has continuously altered. For example, in the 1800s it was not common to find a person who can read at a high level. Reading was not considered as important as a skill back then, and some people, such as blacks and women, were not allowed to be taught to read. Since reading wasnt as valued of a skill in the 1800s as it is today, the standards of what it took to be considered literate was low. During the 1800s, a person could read at a fifth grade level and be considered literate, where as now, most people arent considered literate until they are able to read at a high school level. Literacy was more of an extra curricular activity that people would do to show their social status in the past, unlike today where the ability to read is considered a necessity. This change shows that as time goes by and as the value of literacy increases, so do the standards of what is considered literate. My understanding of literacy also continues to grow as time goes by, which can be attributed to the multiple teachers I have had over the years.

Tyler Demery My schooling played a very important role in forming my idea of what literacy was and what it meant to be literate. Over the years, my English teachers would critique and judge my papers to see if they were quality. In my eyes, the higher grade I earned, the more literate I was considered. If I earned a bad grade, it was usually because I didnt articulate my ideas well which I thought meant that I was illiterate. I know this probably isnt a sound way to judge ones own level of literacy, but this attitude has stuck with me even to this day. If others can not fully understand the idea that I am trying to present to them, then I attribute it to my literacy. Although my teachers played an important role on my idea of literacy, just as much importance can be placed on my environment. My family is one that highlights the importance of literacy and what it means to be literate. Since both my mother and father are college graduates, they have worked very hard on implementing common ideals into me that would make me applicable in todays society. On of these ideas happens to be literacy. My parents would constantly pester me about my grammar, and making sure that I explain something in full detail. As a kid I didnt see the point of it much, but now that I am older, I see how important of a role it has played in my writing. It has helped me with going into full detail with my writing and has assisted in minimizing the amount of slang I use when I speak. Outside sources such as media also play a role in ones understanding of literacy. Media often times plays a role in shaping what is seen as literate. Since schooling and education is always a hot topic in the news, it often shapes peoples opinions of literacy. It played a very important role in shaping my idea of literacy. When I was younger, I recall watching a news segment talking about the struggles of education in America. They were talking about how in inner city schools, often times students werent being taught the necessary material

Tyler Demery to qualify them as literate. To show an example of this, they asked a 13-year-old boy what he thought about the current economic issues. His response was dreadful. His response was nothing more than jumbled up thoughts and slang which made his entire spew impossible to understand. After the interview concluded, the news anchor labeled the child as illiterate. This short news segment made me realize that the standards of literacy and what we consider being literate are often times set by the media. The media plays a subconscious role on how everyone lives their lives. They affect the clothing people wear, what people watch, what people eat, and even how people speak. The more that I watched news segments involving education and literacy the more I started to reflect and alter my dialect. I began to better my speaking skills, not because I thought it was a good thing to do, but primarily because I wanted to keep up with what the media deemed as literate. The idea of literacy is continuously altering and will never have a true definition. Everyone interprets the idea of literacy in his or her own way and no interpretation is any more right than the other. Since literacy includes a variety of different mediums stretching from spoken word to writing, it is hard to just give the word one definition. Throughout my growth of understanding literacy, I have learned that it is a necessity to excel both verbally and in writing. How literate or illiterate a person is may affect how the rest of the world views them. If a person is speaks well and is also good at explaining his ideas in writing, people assume that he came from a well educated background and is often considered more of a value to society, where as those with poor speaking skills and weak written communication skills are considered to have come from a background that didnt value education and are looked upon as a burden. Literacy is the key to uniting both racial and economic gaps. This is because no matter what race a person is

Tyler Demery and no matter how much money a person has, the ability to learn how to read and write efficiently is available to everyone.