"A person is literate when he has acquired the essential knowledge and skills which enable him to engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning in his group and community, and whose attainments in reading, writing and arithmetic make it possible for him to continue to use these skills toward his own and the community's development."(UNESCO in Winterowd p.7)
Many involved in the literacy debate consider this to be a viable definition of "functional literacy." On close examination one notices that how one defines "group" and "community" can make a huge difference in exactly what one's interpretation of this literacy means; for some community is the entire nation, while for others it is found more locally. Here we consider the consequences of taking "community" as the United States as a whole or as a much smaller locality or "group" and propose how to deal with them in our present political state.
To look at the nation as a single community the term "cultural literacy" has been coined. Hirsch, a champion of this movement, states "The function of national literacy is to foster effective nationwide communications." (p.2) He claims that by emphasizing a national body of knowledge one would facilitate communication between all Americans and consequently enable quick and concise communications in the workplace and elsewhere in society. Another benefit can be found in the ease of social mobility within this system which would put all students on the same level regardless of race or sex. (p.10-11) Narrower definitions of community are criticized as confining one to a particular vocation and also preventing further personal growth as technology changes. (Hirsch p.11) James Tuttleton sums the cultural literacy drive in saying, "Since we are one nation with a distinctive culture created by and richly available to all, and since our communication with one another depends upon our understanding of its cultural forms, [we call] for a national program that will give our children information not provided under the disastrous reign of progressive education." (p.49) This statement also brings into view exactly what is wrong with "cultural literacy," the assumption that the United States has only one culture which is based in Standard Written English.
"In the United States today there are groups of people living in communities that place little if any value on literacy," writes David Harman. (p.44) He continues, "The clustering of illiteracy in certain areas strongly suggests that there are illiterate communities- groups of people living in environments in which literacy plays only a marginal role..." (p.44) Directly in conflict with the cultural literacy approach, Harman's view contests that the different communities that do exist within the larger USA need individual attention. Literacy has different meanings to different people and therefore communities must be defined locally so that programs can be tailored to the specific needs of a community. In direct response to Hirsch, Richard Ohmann puts forth, "Literacy, like communicative efficiency and standard English, means something quite different for the president of Mobil Oil and for the young Black woman in his secretarial pool." (p.28) Ohmann makes it clear that neither one would be "better off illiterate" but merely notes the differences of importance of literacy for each. Sylvia Scribner questions the validity of "the 'one best answer' approach to the improvement of literacy in our society," citing ethnographic studies of various peoples. Furthermore she urges the "need for understanding the great variety of beliefs and aspirations that various people have developed toward literacy in their particular historical and current life circumstances." (p.17) Specific proof of Scribner's assertion is found in the writings of John Ogbu, where he argues that the United States social system is organized around a race-based caste system. "[T]he job ceiling in the United States affects black-white racial stratification ... caste thus gives class in the minority population added disadvantages: a white lower-class American is only lower class: a black lower-class American is also faced with a job ceiling and other caste barriers," writes Ogbu. (p.137-8) From this point he goes on to argue that minorities require different treatment because this caste system causes them to not value literacy as highly as it is needed. One can see that the United States is a composite of many cultures and many peoples, all of which are
Given that these two views are held by the political right and left respectively, one is compelled to consider what might happen over the next few years with the GOP now in majority. Increasingly one will see diversity pitted against utility and diversity will lose. We must, as a nation, be wary of the promised gains of a cookie cutter education system and support the widely varied body of knowledge that the American people, as a whole, possess. In order for our society to grow and develop we must look beyond the economic gains to be had from standardization and focus on the cultural richness available to us within our borders.