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Reading vs Story
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From: uma at umakrishnaswami.com <uma>
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 09:31:34 -0600
Monica writes:
Thank you for your thought-provoking post. Story is of course more organic. We create it no matter who we are, while reading and writing vary in how central they are to different societies.
But the truth is that reading is privileged, isn't it? So then pretending it isn't important as a carrier of power is to demean those people from non-reading communities who aspire to read. Growing up in India, I noticed early on the real hunger to read among those who weren't born into families where reading was a given. Not just reading, but English--and there's another slew of issues, privilege ascribed to one language over another. Not desirable, but that was reality. In my own family, my husband's mother was pulled out of school in 8th grade to get married. Never forgave them for doing this to her, kept up with her Tamil reading all her life and taught herself to read English by poring over ancient copies of the Strand magazines with the Sherlock Holmes serials. That wasn't so much about pleasure as it was about empowerment. I guess I am torn here. I do see what you're saying. Cultures without written text have been demeaned too long, and we need to understand there is real, rich value in story. But I am leery of falling into the trap of thinking that functional literacy is all that this or that group ought to aim for. The British did that in India, systematically tailored the
"native" educational structure to produce not decision-makers but clerks. Today, the world's a shrinking place and everyone knows that communication is power. I think "illiterate" (terrible word) people the world over know that reading is about the privilege they don't have, and deserve. Functional literacy is fine as a sort of ground floor to begin with, but doesn't it run the danger of becoming a ceiling?
Uma
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 09:31:34 -0600
Monica writes:
Thank you for your thought-provoking post. Story is of course more organic. We create it no matter who we are, while reading and writing vary in how central they are to different societies.
But the truth is that reading is privileged, isn't it? So then pretending it isn't important as a carrier of power is to demean those people from non-reading communities who aspire to read. Growing up in India, I noticed early on the real hunger to read among those who weren't born into families where reading was a given. Not just reading, but English--and there's another slew of issues, privilege ascribed to one language over another. Not desirable, but that was reality. In my own family, my husband's mother was pulled out of school in 8th grade to get married. Never forgave them for doing this to her, kept up with her Tamil reading all her life and taught herself to read English by poring over ancient copies of the Strand magazines with the Sherlock Holmes serials. That wasn't so much about pleasure as it was about empowerment. I guess I am torn here. I do see what you're saying. Cultures without written text have been demeaned too long, and we need to understand there is real, rich value in story. But I am leery of falling into the trap of thinking that functional literacy is all that this or that group ought to aim for. The British did that in India, systematically tailored the
"native" educational structure to produce not decision-makers but clerks. Today, the world's a shrinking place and everyone knows that communication is power. I think "illiterate" (terrible word) people the world over know that reading is about the privilege they don't have, and deserve. Functional literacy is fine as a sort of ground floor to begin with, but doesn't it run the danger of becoming a ceiling?
Uma
-- Uma Krishnaswami Books, links for teachers and writers, FAQs, and South Asian children's lit resources at http://www.umakrishnaswami.com """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" What a heavy price one has to pay to be regarded as civilized. [Kasturba Gandhi, on wearing shoes]Received on Sun 18 Jul 2004 10:31:34 AM CDT
