Functioning in an oral based community

I began reading "Protean Shapes in literacy events: Ever-Shifting Oral and Literate Traditions and was drawn to the story about the girl scout. I have myself answered the door to a girl scout and breifly held the order sheet in my hand looking down as if to read her sheet. I also didnt read the folder but listened to the girl scout explain her name, what she was selling, and who it would benefit, even though it was in my hand in print. It is true that many literacy events can be used as speech events. The town Trackton was very interesting to me. In this town, speech is focused on more than writing and reading. Because of this, adults and children are good story tellers. Although, they have no sence of struture because of the lack of familiairity with writing structure. Instead of reading on their own, everyone read together, and discussed orally their problems. Even though it would have taken much less time to breifly read something, they were more comfortable talking it over for an hour or more time. Literacy in Tracton is only justa s a resource. I found Trackton very interesting and it broaden my views on speech literacy.

Writing-technology forgotten

"The fact that we do not commonly feel the influence of writing on our thoughts show that we have interiorized the technology of writing so deeply that without tremendous effort we cannot seperate it from ourselves or even recgnize its presence and influence." Not until after reading Ong's essay "Writng is a technology that restructures thought" did I really considering writing a technology. Plato was oppressive towards writing and believed it would hurt us as individuals in the long run. Plato's Socrates warned people that writing is unresponsive. You can not defend your writing after someone reads it. It is left out in the open. In a way I agree with Plato that while talking you are able to defend and explain what you are saying. But I also love to write because it's a way to get my thoughts out. A lot of things I write in my journal for soccer or just on my own, I would never say to a person through my words.

Plato also discourages writing because he felt that it would decrease your memory. Although this may be true, some of my favorite belongings are letters that are WRITTEN. I have many letters from my mom that are handwritten that I cherish very much. I use these letters as a comfort whenever I feel sad. Letters from my grandma who has passed are filled with memories that I will never get back. So maybe Plato is right, that by writing we loose some of our memory, but I am thankful for the letters I have of my grandma and also of mom that remind me of memories and their love.

Sponsers of Literacy

After reading "Sponsers of Literacy" by Deborah Brandt she really presented ideas I had never considered. Brandt describes "Sponsers" as any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, recruit, regulate, or withold literacy-AND gain advantage by it in some way. The idea of sponsers teaching their literacy to others to benefit themselves was really interesting to me. The example Brandt uses in the book I can relate to. For me, I have been playing soccer since the age of 5 and we have always been given jeresys at the start of each year. Every year the jersey had a logo or "Sponser" on the back, written in large print. This is a great example of acquiring literacy under the banner and benefit of other's cause.

Looking at sponsers closely gives possible answers to the development of individuals ability to read and write.