Khaled Akam
Society is given at two faces of a whole, showing as at view point that writers are important to our upbringings but the second is hiding the construction of thought one could give in literacy. James Paul Gee wrote “The teaching of literacy involved a contradiction: Illiterates were considered dangerous to the social order; thus, they must be made literate; yet the potentialities of reading and writing for an underclass could well be radical and inflammatory.”. This text is telling us that everyone should be taught to write but it can cause disarray if you aren’t knowledgeable. Realizing that some people abused literacy to keep the social hierarchy in place, defeats us in our pursue in advancing literacy. The idea that Literacy was a tool used to keep people from reaching their full potential is unacceptable. I feel troubled at the number of writers that should have been born if not for our greed or delusion of social order. Literacy was being controlled because it held value. In Gee’s quote I noticed I was being escorted to an argument, the underlying issue of literacy. At first it poised a question in my head as I was reading but it became clear that writing and reading coveted. Nevertheless, the writer was compelling in the argument that writing was critical and it should be taught to everyone without bias.
Our minds should be for ourselves and not a struggle that others wish to conquer. Neil Postman says, “This is yet another principle of technological change we may infer from the judgement of Thamus: new technologies compete with old ones-for time, for attention, for money, for prestige, but mostly for dominance of their world-view.”. The change in technology causes clashes between things we hold of value but mainly for our pursue of imparting our knowledge on others. Just as reading about Christopher Columbus in school you may only learn about his achievements but not about anything else he did. This supports the idea that altering our thought process by not grasping new technology may only hinder our development. I feel like I was being controlled by the persuasion of competition between powerful forces in our society. We are taught early in our childhood certain subjects but never the entire truths. The perpetual need to control society is perpetual. The writing proposes the solution of asking questions that we may find through thought instead of from others. We read about viewpoints of others when new technology may arise but in the end its all about us and our development.
These are thoughtful reflections, but can be confusing at time. My suggestion is to go back and read over what you wrote and edit for clarity. For instance, “At first it poised a question in my head as I was reading but it became clear that writing and reading coveted.” Is there a verb missing here? There are other sentences that are similar, so just make sure to go back over your work.