The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse

From reading The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse by author Lisa Delpit, I thought it was truly interesting as she talked and discussed some of the problematic from another article Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics by James Paul Gee. As Gee introduces in his article of the "identity kit" a "discourse is sort of identity kit which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so as to take on a particular role that others will recognize" (pg. 526), he also introduces the concept of what makes up primary discourse, secondary discourse, and the differences between dominate discourses and non-dominate discourses which Delpit can relate to.

As Delpit agree with Gee in the most parts, she argues, "people who have not been born into dominate discourses will find it exceedingly difficult to acquire a discourse" and "that an individual who is born into one discourse with one set of values may experience major conflicts when attempting to acquire another discourse with another set of values," (pg. 546-547).

Deplit finds Gee's concerns "discomfort" as she believes there are many individuals who have had problems overcome the discourse. She also believes many individuals who may have struggle within a poor discourse can become excellent writers and readers due to teachers. She uses Mike Rose as an example that many teachers and or educators do care enough outside of the dominate discourse to help poor individuals like Rose himself to become the writer he is.

"The Ethnography of Literacy"

What is literacy and what does it really mean? After reading "The Ethnography of Literacy" by author John F. Szwen, I found it interesting that Szwen believes there is no specific meaning to what literacy is nor what it means. He gives many details and understanding in his article that each person inherits literary in their own different cultural and social ways. Meaning as we learn to read and write there are many ways we inherit literacy skills. He states, "A boy, otherwise labeled as retarded and unable to read assigned texts, may have considerable skills at reading and interpreting baseball record books" (pg. 423). I thought this quote was interesting since it bought up a kind of perspective I never really thought of before. As I would think of the word literacy, I would think of reading and writing at higher education/college level . As the term may be define: the ability to read and write, there is actual no right or wrong answer as to how we interpret the meaning.