Baron's "From Pencils To Pixels"

I agree with Baron's claim that literacy technology is always evolving and that what seems really old to us now was once new and was also viewed with skepticism like it is today. The computer, he says, is just the newest invention in a long line of inventions that have helped us write.

Five sentences that support this position:
1. "The pencil may seem a simple device in contrast to the computer, but although it has fewer parts, it too is an advanced technology." - We think that pencils are so old fashioned since now we have complicated electronic devices that can do virtually everything for us, but at the time they were created, pencils were viewed just like we view high tech computers nowadays.
2. "We cannot be exactly sure why writing was invented, but just as the gurus of today's technology are called computer geeks, it's possible that the first writers also seemed like a bunch of oddballs to the early Sumerians, who might have called them cuneiform geeks." - Since speaking was the primary way of getting ideas across originally, the people who invented writing might have been looked at in a way that denoted above average intelligence. I know I look at technology experts in today's world that way.
3. "Plato was one leading thinker who spoke out strongly against writing, fearing that it would weaken our memories."
4. "When we began to use computers in university writing classes, instructors didn't tell students about the spell-check programs on their word processors, fearing the students would forget how to spell." - This sentence and the previous sentence represent the fact that people today have the same fears that people in the past had. Even though it may seem ridiculous to us now that people feared the act of writing because writing has been around for ages, writing was new at one time and people generally fear new things.
5. "We have a way of getting so used to writing technologies that we come to think of them as natural rather than technological. We assume that pencils are a natural way to write because they are old — or at least because we have come to think of them as being old." - Since writing and pencils and whatnot have been around for so long, we forget they are forms of technology. We only see computers as technology because that's what is new today, but old things were once new.

One sentence that's ambiguous:
Under the section Humanists and Technology, I just don't understand why Henderson is so anti-computers when pencils were the computers of the 1800s. He bases his actions on the fact that Thoreau didn't like telegraphs, but Thoreau full-well knew that pencils were technology since he designed them for a living.

Questions for class discussion:
Do you think this article would make people who are "anti-technology" give technology a chance, seeing as the tools they use and see as old-fashioned were once new?

Autoethnography first draft

            As far back as I can remember I’ve always loved to read. My love of writing came a bit later, but reading was my first passion. A lot of kids don’t really like reading because they associate it with being forced to read books for school that they never would have chosen on their own, but I caught the reading bug in kindergarten—long before that was an issue.

            Some of my first literacy memories took place inside the New York Public Library. Here, I’d wander the children’s section for what seemed like hours, handing my mom or dad every book I picked out so I wouldn’t have to hold them all. At the tender age of six I got my first library card with a signature that was close to illegible (when I got older I just had to get a new one because I couldn’t stand how sloppily written my name was), but what mattered most was that it was my own; it was a portal to a different world. When I’d finish raiding the children’s section, we’d go to the adult section so my parents could browse around. I remember being in awe of how long these books were compared to my books and couldn’t wait until I could read them all. Spending time at the library with my parents gave me a chance to bond with them; the three of us had (and still have) different interests, but books are one thing we’ve always had in common. To this day if you walk into my house, you’re likely to find the three of us in various areas of the house with a book in our hands.

            My grandma got me my first journal when I was in third grade. It was purple (my favorite color then and now) and sparkly and you could only open it with the key that it came with and I guarded that key with my life. I scribbled down my thoughts on my classmates, my friends, my family, my animals and anything else my little eight-year-old mind could think of until I ran out of pages. Though I’ve never been one to religiously keep a journal (I’ve had a few since third grade), this was my first brush with writing just for myself as opposed to writing for academic reasons, and I liked it.

            In fifth grade, it was evident that I was ahead of my peers in the reading department. All the books in Mrs. Held’s classroom had colored stickers on them and we could only read books of the color we were assigned based on our reading level. I remember being able to read books of a higher level than most of my class and I totally loved the fact that I was reading books that no one else was; it made me feel special. Two books I read then that stick out in my mind are The Giver by Lois Lowry and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

            A year later, in sixth grade, we had to write a book about ourselves. I found this assignment to be a lot of fun and even bound it together with ribbon instead of just stapling it. Ms. Roman thought I did a good job on it and showed the class my work (along with a few other students’ work). During this time, I was practically failing math and this book kind of let me know that I was good at something.

            I was in eighth grade when I finally got a television in my room. Until then, I had nothing to do in there but read and I think that was the point of me not being allowed to have a TV in there in the first place. My parents placed a high value on literacy and didn’t really want me spending 24 hours a day in front of a TV. I did read a little less at first because I was so thrilled to be able to watch TV anytime I wanted instead of having to wait for a time when my parents weren’t watching their shows, but after a while there were times where I simply didn’t feel like watching TV, so I’d go back to my books. I think this solidified the fact that books were an important part of my life and nothing was going to really change that.

            Ninth grade was the year that I discovered just how much I really liked to write. At the time, I was big into the show Gilmore Girls and one of the characters, Rory, wanted to be a journalist. When I found out that journalism was one of the electives my high school offered, I jumped at the opportunity to take it. I loved journalism because it gave me a sense that what I was writing really mattered (not to mention, I felt pretty official getting to interview people). This class had me constantly writing and I enjoyed every minute of it. Though I sometimes found it difficult to piece together a story, I welcomed the challenge (unlike the challenge of math, which was unbearable). The same year was also my mom’s first parent-teacher conference at the high school and that day, she asked me how to get to all of the classrooms. It was my first instinct to write a detailed list of steps that took up about three sheets of computer paper. For whatever reason my mom told my journalism teacher, Mrs. Baron, about what I had done and Mrs. Baron told her that she remembered doing the same kind of thing when she was younger. My mom took it as a sign that I was meant to write.

            It was a continuing trend all throughout middle school and high school that I was good at English and history, but not so great at science and embarrassingly terrible at math. It was only natural for me to want to pursue the things I was good at, so even though I think of my ninth grade journalism class as kind of a turning point for me, my academic record showed that I was bound for this path anyway.

            I never liked poetry until I really got into Stevie Nicks. I’d always enjoyed her music since I grew up listening to classic rock, but I really became obsessed freshman year of college. Until then, poetry had never done anything for me. Why was William Carlos Williams’ eight-line poem about a wheelbarrow so important? Why was I being forced to read poems from the 1800s that were so outdated and hard to understand? I hadn’t realized that songs were poems and Stevie’s just hit me in a way that I had never experienced before; unlike “The Red Wheelbarrow,” or any other poems I read in high school, I could actually relate to Stevie’s words.   

            In applying Deborah Brandt’s theory, my sponsors of literacy throughout my life have been my parents and the resources they’ve provided me throughout my life, my teachers, and Stevie Nicks. Brandt’s definition of sponsors includes the fact that they gain some advantage by their sponsorship and this is true of the sponsors I’ve mentioned. My parents gain the knowledge that I am a literate and educated person with a path that I am following. So far, they have been pretty successful in raising me and I think that’s definitely valuable to them. My teachers have not only gained a paycheck for their efforts, but the knowledge that they helped shape a student’s life in some way. Lastly, Stevie Nicks earns money from the songs and albums I’ve purchased and all the money she’s ever made shows her that she has a large fan base. This is good for her to know because if she didn’t have any fans, what’s the point of her doing what she does?

            Looking back, these sponsors exhibit the type of life I had. For example, many parents could have easily left their child’s school in charge of their reading if they were too busy to do it themselves, but my parents always made time because they felt that my literacy was very important. Although I didn’t mention it, being a student at Ithaca College is a reflection of my economic standing and class as well; not everyone is able to go to college to pursue what they are interested in.

            It’s very interesting to look back at how my literacy sponsors and socioeconomic background have shaped me. Reading and writing have always been a big part of my life and I now realize that I’m not the only one responsible for that. 

map of my own literacy

my own literacy moment

As a child, I always had an interest in books. My mom would always take me to the library whenever I wanted to go (which was a lot) and I'd check out tons of books of any kind. My mom never put a limit on what I could and couldn't read. Anything that piqued my interest was okay with her. Even as a small child, I had my own library card and I remember that when I got a little older, I desperately wanted a new one because my kindergarten signature was so sloppy. Since I would always get so many books from the library, I developed a habit of reading multiple books at one time. I still do that to this day and a lot of people don't understand how/why I do it, but it works for me. Since my childhood was so deeply rooted in actual books, it boggles my mind how people are able to read off of nooks and kindles. It just doesn't seem natural to me at all.

summary of a literacy sponsor

Brandt's idea of a literacy sponsor is anyone or anything that influences a person's literacy. It could be someone's teacher, parents, job, etc. Sponsors also have something to gain. For example, a teacher gains a paycheck, or a boss gains a competent worker. Literacy sponsors are dependent on who you are as a person (culture, class, gender, etc.). For example, if you are Chinese and live in a rural area of America, accessing a sponsor to fit your needs might be hard. If you are extremely poor, accessing a sponsor might be a little harder than if a rich person wanted to access a sponsor because you might not have the money to buy books or get a higher education, etc.

Literacy Map of Dora Lopez on Coggle

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.