Reading response to "Sponsors of Literacy"

"Sponsors of Literacy" demonstrated that sponsors play a very influential role in the literacy of individuals.  Brandt defines a sponsor as anything that "enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy—and gain advantage by it in some way." There were stories about a few different people, all of whose cultures, classes, opportunities, and jobs played an important part in their literacy. One man, Raymond Branch, grew up in California playing with computers both at his school and at his father's science lab in the mid 1970s. In the late 1970s, he and his family moved to the Midwest, where he received his own computer for Christmas. This computer gave him access to all types of literature that interested him. Conversely, Dora Lopez, who was born the same year as Raymond Branch and lived in the same area of the Midwest as he did, didn't have the same sponsors of literacy as he did. She and her family had to travel almost 70 miles for Spanish newspapers and magazines and couldn't usually get any Spanish radio stations. She was also exposed to computers at a later age than Raymond Branch. It's interesting that two people of the same age who live in the same town have such different sponsors of literacy based on their class, culture, and gender. 

Dwayne Lowery's sponsors of literacy were newspapers and the union he was in. Due to these two sponsors, Lowery's reading and writing habits drastically changed. He was someone who never really liked school and didn't do much reading and writing. When he got a job in the union, he began to inform himself more by reading newspapers, and he had to read and write legal briefs. By simply getting a job, Lowery gained sponsors of literacy and they became very important to his life.

In the cases of Sarah Steele and Carole White, people they worked with were their sponsors of literacy. Carole White's sponsor was the vice-president of the firm where she was a secretary. She observed him writing anecdotes and that helped her when she started going door-to-door as a Jehovah's Witness. Sarah Steele picked up tips on how to budget her household from an attorney where she worked. 

Having sponsors of literacy of any form is extremely important because they help you in many areas of life. I thought it was very interesting that a study was done on this subject and I'm actually very curious about what types of sponsors people I know have.