Online Articles

In the “Silencing Teachers” article, I really felt for the teachers in the Downer school. First of all, what kind of name is that for a school? They were saying that the students in that school were “predominantly poor, non-native English speaking Latino children”. Having the school named that seems to inadvertently label the students and attitudes in the school. While I read the article, I was left with the constant question of why don’t the administrators in the district put the students’ best interest first? They are so worried about making the grade that they don’t see what it is doing to the children. The teachers are trying their best but getting nowhere as they try to fight for the students. After all, wouldn’t it be the teachers that know the students’ needs best since they work with them on a daily basis? It is very sad to know that this is going on in this district, and I’m sure many others across America.

The section from Wikipedia that defines literacy as “the ability to read, write, spell, listen and speak” was interesting. I found it interesting to know that a long time ago, literacy was measured by one’s ability to write their name or read the Bible. Now we have much different standards, which are still in question. So many different aspects go in to literacy, such as decoding, fluency and comprehension. The article also mentioned a bunch of new illiteracies, to which I had never given any though. I realize that with the introduction of the computer and Internet, a whole new world of ideas and information came about. I hadn’t thought of these as having an effect on one’s literacy. I feel that the initial definition of literacy does make sense on a basic level, however, it is clear that so much more goes into shaping a literate person. Will there ever be a concrete definition of what it means to be literate without someone arguing something else?