Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id f71EDcf29321; Wed, 1 Aug 2001 10:13:38 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 10:13:38 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <71.107c09fd.28996279@aol.com> Errors-To: alcrsb@langate.gsu.edu Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AndresMuro@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:1551] Re: Ethical question X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 108 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 2925 Lines: 49 In a message dated 7/31/2001 3:19:48 PM Mountain Daylight Time, trmay@hotmail.com writes: "Literacy should exist before all else" knowing how to communicate and function within society is what we teach, and not what should be communicated! I think we really must remember that we are responsible for structure, and not content. I also think that selecting who we teach based on how they think can only be dangerous. It makes me think of a doctor who refuses to heal a patient based on how she or he thinks or acts. >> "Literacy should exist before all else" This is both a sociological and anthropological fallacy. Literacy cannot exist before anything else. Culture and society emerges, and language follows. Language describes the elements and contexts that emerge and exist in communities. As such it acquires meaning in context. There is no language that has meaning outside of context. In addition, the meaning of language changes all the time, when our context change. For example the word car does not mean the same thing to two people. Ask your students to describe what they think and they will give you different descriptions. The word car doesn't have too many controversial meanings, but, how about the words Mexican, Black, Arab or Jew, for example. Depending who you are, where you are and the time in history, these words mean different things, and the images that we see in our brains when we hear these words are different. Why do you think that for some people these words may have meant the following at different times in history: A lazy sombrero wearing dirty person who loves welfare A person who needs to sit in the back of the bus and harvest cotton for free An uncivilized religious fanatic who puts bombs A person who makes race impure and needs to be eradicated from society. When you live in a community, language is used in context. As such, people learn meanings in these contexts. Even in classrooms these meanings get reinforced. there are no neutral classrooms where meanings do not exist. Meanings may get reinforced by inclusion or exclusion. for example, if you use a book in which no women or blacks are depicted doing professional work, you are subtly contributing to the idea that only white men should do this kind of work. By the same token, if the book has different images, you are conveying different meanings. If all the magazines have covers with skinny young women with large breast, what do you think that this means? The question is: how do textbooks, brochures, signs, etc., etc., or any other literature convey different meanings? Take a look at a single piece of literature and if you think about it, it will carry some meaning that is socially, culturally or ideologically bound. If you are interested in this subject, I would take a look at Brian Street. I can refer you to some literature about this, if you like. Andres
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