Raymond Chang
Sauer
Argument
May 2, 1997

Literate Students:
An Endangered Species?

People generally think of students of inner-city schools as significantly more "illiterate" than their counterparts in the suburbs. It may be true that the literacy rate is lower in inner-city schools than in suburban schools, but is it far more superior in suburban than in inner-city schools? (1995 Digest of Education Statistics) In discussing what people generally call literacy, in the 1995 Digest of Education Statistics, at every single age and year surveyed, advantaged urban students received scores about 40 points above those of disadvantaged urban students in reading proficiency. The scores for writing performance showed an even closer gap between the two groups. This may seem like good news, but the scores did not go higher than 300 points out of a possible 500 points. Does this seem as if only our inner city students are suffering? Absolutely not. The suburban students are also "feeling" the difference. They are just as vulnerable as their counterparts to the decreasing literacy. Illiteracy is a problem that we must correct in the young before it is too late. Many of the methods available, can help both sides.

Oddly enough, in the 1995 Digest of Education Statistics, every year a high percentage of high school seniors consistently ranked "Being successful in work" and "Finding steady work" as very important. Isn't it a bit odd that their literacy level is still so low? Literacy levels is one of the reasons, students are having a harder time getting into college and finding jobs. In the upper echelons of employment, companies hire people whom they feel can relate to others. (Hirsch 12) Students need help to fill the void that companies are finding. They need to be able to have literacy as described by James Paul Gee. Gee, in his article "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction," introduces the concept of Discourses, "ways of being in the world…which integrates words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes." (6-7) Gee suggestes that we all have a Primary Discourse, which is the "language" that we first learn to be able to communicate with others, and we pick up a Secondary Discourse, which is the collection of "languages" that we pick up from society to fit in with certain groups. (7-8) This Secondary Discourse is crucial to surviving in the corporate workplace in that it allows the person to be able to carry on conversations with a wide variety of people and can change his "personality" to match each situation.

However, this only helps students to interact with others well. Students often need peer groups to help them to acquire these discourses. In Pittsburgh, the National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy at Carnegie Mellon University have collaborated with Pittsburgh's Community House in the Community Literacy Center (CLC) since 1989 to help inner-city students with writing. The Community House was started in the early 1900s as part of the settlement house movement. Settlement houses were created to "foster cultural interaction" and to work towards "educational and social renewal." (Peck et al., 201) With the introduction of college students to the program, the program has combined many different views on writing.

"Carnegie Mellon students often come to mentoring with assumptions that reflect two dominant views of literacy instruction. Some expect to help community residents 'improve and correct' their writing, seeing the goal of writing as the production of mainstream discourse - the very discourse demanded of college students. Other mentors come hoping to open the gates of self-expression and self-discovery, helping teenagers 'find their own voice.' The CLC comes to writing from a third angle, that of rhetoric." (Peck et al. 207-8)

By rhetoric, Peck means that the CLC wants writing to be as close to a face to face conversation between two people. Writing should be "a strategic, social act and an individual thinking process that invites study, teaching and learning." (Peck et al. 208) To teach the students this, Peck et al. introduced community literacy. This idea stems from Milbrey W. McLaughlin's observation that

"community response to youth offer few forums for the voice of youth to be heard, and heavy-handed, authoritarian European traditions characterize youth organizations. Youngsters have little legitimate presence at the community level, and city government, by the report of insiders, has not been very effective in working with or for youth." (McLaughlin in Peck et. al. 208)

At the CLC, students use community problems as topics for their writing. This helps them to be motivated to write well, because often, their papers are shown to the people who need to hear about the problems. Before most of the teens enter the program, they are skeptic about important people such as school administrators listening to their ideas or problems. Once they are shown that people will listen, they become enthusiastic about writing. In fact, the students often find time outside of their time at the CLC to write. (Peck et. al. 208-9) As Peck et. al. describe it, the students "carved out their own space to talk and express their views." (209)

Peck et. al. also discusses the concept of cultural literacy that could be used in instructing students. Cultural literacy is the concept introduced by E.D. Hirsch that is

"the network of information that all competent readers possess. It is the background information, stored in their minds, that enables them to take up a newspaper and read it with an adequate level of comprehension, getting the point, grasping the implications, relating what they read to the unstated context which alone gives meaning to what they read." (Hirsch 3)

However, unlike Hirsch, Peck et. al. suggest that although cultural literacy alone is not enough, it is still part of the equation. Hirsch feels that cultural literacy is enough literacy for everyone. No one needs to learn other material.

"The failure of our schools to create a literate society is sometimes excused on the grounds that the schools have been asked to do too much. They are asked, for example, to pay due regard to the demands of both local and national acculturation. They are asked to teach not only American history but also state and city history, driving, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, consumerism, carpentry, cooking, and other special subjects." (Hirsch 83)

Peck et. al. agree that "cultural literacy" builds "community with the tools of a shared language and literate practices," but "for both ethical and practical reasons, we can no longer depend on the traditions and practices that have been etched in one particular discourse or another." (203) Instead, Peck et. al. offer that "in acknowledging the integrity of different cultural practices, multicultural curricula take an important first step towards such a discourse by celebrating the power of diversity" (204)

Multicultural curricula is important because in the real world, not every one is the same. There are so many ethnic groups that we need to broaden our minds. For example, in a study made by Au and Mason, studies were made on how Hawaiian minority children were taught to read, but when the same technique was used to teach Navajo children, they were not successful. (Barnitz 587) If there was only one ethnic group, then Hirsch's concept of cultural literacy might work, but in reality it just wouldn't work. Within each ethnic group the concept is feasible for the discourse, but outside, we must rely on more advanced methods of training. In mastering Secondary Discourses, people will be able to understand each other much better. The culture gaps would close allowing for clearer communication between people.

By having students learn in groups, we can also cut down on the use of physical disorders to describe illiterate people. According to Allen Berger, "In schools and cities throughout our land we use phrases that are meaningless. A consequence of this loose use of language to us and our democracy is that failure to read and write is now perceived as a physical disability rather than an academic or socioeconomic disadvantage." (4) Some of the phrases that he discuss are prior knowledge, dyslexia, and learning disabilities. It is true that there are students who have trouble learning because of a physical problem with their brain, but many times, students are labeled with a physical disability just because they have difficulty learning to read and write. For example, Berger questions if some were to drop a football if they would be labled learning disabled. By labeling able students with a physical disorder, we are essentially giving them an excuse not to learn. We need to motivate them not degrade them.

We further degrade them by placing much of the blame on them for violence and not doing enough to help them. (Flynn 12) True, we have programs such as community centers to help them, but lots of time, because employers are hesitant to employ students, many of them resort to hanging around in the streets causing disturbances and other societal problems. Employers need to give students more chances to motivate themselves through work. Once we get students motivated and off the streets, we will have an easier time to solve our current literacy dilemma. If students do not get an opportunity to experience what employers have been complaining about, how will they be able to understand what they need to do? This all turns back to the idea that students are not involved in community as much as they should. It all becomes an endless cycle.

All of the problems mentioned above applies to both inner-city and suburban students. All have the same problems. Discourses and multicultural education can help us all understand one another while training people to read and write. Once we start applying this type of education to our students and motivate them instead of degrading them, we can prevent literate students from becoming extinct. Because our educational system centers around the public schools, we need to have the public schools set up these programs. (Dewey in Flynn 8) It is true that many schools already have these programs set up and have high literacy rates, but since the data from the 1995 Digest of Education Statistics are averages, we know that not all schools have succeeded with whatever programs they have set up. We need to break this cycle so that it ends with students being literate so that we can all communicate well with each other.

Works Cited