Final Thoughts on ENGLB6400

It was with pleasure that I participated and learned many new things in ENGL B6400. Taking the graduate course Theories and Models of Literacy broadened my scope of knowledge on several areas of global literacy, namely history. Such an expansive subject area was covered in the course that I have had to narrow down the things I will talk about in this post. The readings which spoke to me the most were more historically-geared than theory-oriented. Alberto Manguel's chapter from his book A History of Reading was written simply and at the same time intellectually stimulating. It intrigued me to read the rest of the book. Learning about the evolution of silent reading was fascinating. Another material which piqued my interest was John Man's book Alpha Beta. I read it cover to cover in two days. For me it shone a light on the British perspective of the development of pictorial writing systems, syllabaries, and alphabets first by way of Ancient China, the Near East, and then the early cultures of the Mediterranean. If I were to sing praises to any part of Man’s book, I more than happy to single out the last two chapters, “Why We Don’t Write Etruscan” and “The Limits to Growth.” In the first, Man takes us on an interesting historical detour as he recounts the explosive growth in the field of Etruscan studies starting in the seventeenth century after it lay relatively unknown for almost two millennia. Of course, much about these people still remains a mystery, as very little survives the careless and wanton destruction of their antiquities by both ancient Romans and the Enlightenment treasure hunters and scavengers. In the last chapter, Man sheds light on just how and why the Western and Eastern Europe split when the latter adopted the Cyrillic alphabet – and why several, including Romania, later switched. (Which recalls the same reason modern Turkey, under Ataturk, ditched Arabic script for Roman.) E.D. Hirsch's Cultural Literacy sparked a very interesting debate in our classroom, I felt this text nudged people to speak out their opinions more, and this was very enjoyable to watch and listen to. The common consensus was that everyone hated Hirsch's guts, and at times during this reading I could sort of see their point-- there are phrases and themes that seem profoundly one-sided and ignorant of socioeconomic status in here-- and yet I can't help but agree wholeheartedly with his central thesis, which is that education should be broad with deep grooves, or, to use his terminology, to be intensive in matters of personal interest, yet extensive for everyone. The Columbia Rare Books Library was also a notable class of the semester. We had a chance to peruse extensive, eclectic ancient texts and manuscripts, to learn about materials used in printing and publishing them. Finally, my report on Paolo Freire and the readings I did for it, namely Victoria Purcell-Gates' Other People's Words brought me closer to understanding critical literacy theory and how it can be tied to different populations. Overall a fascinating project and I hope it will be enjoyed by all on my blog post below. Thank you, Professor Gleason, for a wonderful semester.