Three Forms of Literacy According to Scribner

In “Literacy in Three Metaphors”, Scribner presents literacy, and the concept of defining literacy. She states how literacy is impossible to define because it has so many different facets to it, usually depending on the society that is being used to define literacy. Literacy can mean so many different things depending on how you use it in society. The three metaphors that Scribner gives are literacy as a adaptation, literacy as power, and literacy as state of grace. She describes how literacy is functional in a society, how people use the written language in their daily lives. She also describes how literacy can be used to give strength to a community, allowing more social participation from a larger amount of people. She also describes how literacy can be used to give a person certain virtues or spiritual power. I think that it is interesting, how Scribner describes the many facets of literacy. Most think of it as reading and writing. Few expand on how it is defined based on its purpose and need in a society. I think that is important because the purpose of an action will always give a lot more information than the action itself.

While both Carr and Hedges show how literacy is important in a society, they do not show how it is different for every society. They also show how literacy is continuously changing; however, they do not see how it is growing. In Thompson’s article “The New Literacy” he shows how literacy could potentially be changing for the better in America. He discusses how we live in an age that is filled with writing. I never really thought about how much more writing is done in society than in the early 20^th century. With the internet you just assume that writing is decreasing. However, with all of the blogging and status updates, we are writing more than ever. Yes it may not be that every status update and tweet turned out is a Pulitzer Prize in the making. Still the magnitude of people writing is enormous. While I can see the disadvantages of writing becoming shallower, it does seem to be growing more functionally ideal with the number of people who are writing growing.

I think that our most pressing literacy concerns should be on making sure that the rate of literacy grows without losing depth and intelligence in writing. If we all start changing literacy into the shortest most convenient thing possible, like doublespeak in 1984, then we will be in serious trouble. Still I think that literacy should continue to grow so that everyone can both listen and be heard.