profiting from Literacy and reading, who does that?

Literally literacy for profit of all!!!

In a recent hot air blog on the Washington post website (www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnews%2Fthe-intersect%2Fwp%2F2014%2F05%2F28%2Fyou-might-want-to-reconsider-that-donation-to-the-reading-rainbow-kickstarter%2F&h=FAQGL3LLL)

By Caitlin Dewey form may 28 2014, Levar Burton’s new kickstarter campaign, to fund a new “reboot” of Reading Rainbow and literacy promotion is a dastardly venture with a clear ulterior motive, to make profit? Who does that? I mean really who in their right mind makes profit from selling books? Hmmmm… the whole publishing industry, local independent bookstores everywhere, and even yes, Amazon and audible.com yeah its wrong to profit from doing the world an important service like literacy.

Teaching literacy to the masses and being for profit

These two things are not at conflict with each other in the real world and really never have been or will ever be.

Its either that there is this infinite and endless peace between profitability and literacy or else bookstores everywhere would not exist, and all books would only be available through the already budget gutted libraries and struggling charities.

We need for profit literacy companies and stores also, lest we fall into communism. (joke)

While there might be plenty of research on the importance of early literacy and phonics that does not in anyway negate the need for a life long love of reading to encourage a educated free and democratic society.

To follow in the logic of cutting funding for everything that’s not phonics or early reading, lets just leave it at that, if they are literate they will stay that way. Except if they never read for fun, and feel reading is just either boring or a chore. Wait if they can read then there is no need for langue arts education past 2^nd grade. So our kids can learn just enough to read then they need nothing. I smell total BULL SHIT!

If the question was only about teaching kids to read period, it would be much easier to address the language need of our students. But try teaching reading to someone who is reluctant to read at any age? We need to engage them too.

OMG the show is already popular? really? That is  not a legitimate reason to stop future generations from learning to love to read from a digital platform!

Just because the new reading rainbow stuff is going to be available to computer first does not make the program an elitist group of selfish literacy lovers, it means they have to start somewhere and starting with the population that watched the 80’s-2000’s show ( who mostly have computers by now)_is actually a good thing.

SO if your going to criticize profit making, why not only read the physical library books, only watch library dvd’s, and watch reruns of reading rainbow no one is stopping you. And please everyone reading this support reading and literacy initiatives in your area. There are tons. Like Reading partners and  SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARIES and I would hasten to add SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORES!

But please don’t turn the Levar Burton/ new Reading “reboot” into a capitalism bashing party, or a soap box with out a mirror.

I hasten to ask this Caitlin Dewey what she does to promote children’s literacy in her own life…..

I for one am working on my library masters and I work in a local bookstore, selling literacy and love of reading BOTH each and every minute I can.
 

Let's let go of some of our power to empower youth, and get more out of our research!

Power dynamics, in our example are being an adult who is imediately both outsider to youth culture and the adult is seen as an “authority” figure  and the resulting power struggles pervade almost everywhere in modern life especially between teens and adults. Best’s 2000 article on about how adults create media that manifest into social constructions of “proms” and often dictate the lasting cultural significance of a prom.  The counter argument that I support is that young adults and youth need to, can and will identify themselves through their own personal experiences of certain rites of passage (like prom). This somewhat unpopular idea needs to be taught, reinforced and spread so that youth will know that their personal growth experiences will certainly shape them more than any adult label or adult construct.

The problems arise when adults assert their agendas and perspectives on teens who see things their own way, and clearly need to identify and define themselves on their own terms. Consequences can of the lack of self discovery can be devastating to a younger person and he or she’s future. Our current ageist power hierarchy (in Bes’s case) of those of who controls the meaning of and responsibility for youth behaviors and experiences needs to be questioned and flipped.

To bring this idea into what I can do as a future librarian or researcher, I will make sure I include youth through out the research process, and continually examine what they think, how they experience and how they describe their lives and make a free and safe spaces so they can discuss all f this and more entirely on their own terms.

Power dynamics such as those presented in Best (2000) Dimitidis (2008) and Taft (2007) also speak of the predominant racism inherent of our understanding of the construct of the legacy of the conventional American young adult experiences. The American young adult experience is often portrayed in literature, and through out all media as almost always white, upper middle class, heterosexual, traditional nuclear family. The dominance of this portrayal in media and literature is unsettling and to me is quite disturbing despite the changes over recent years progress has been slow, and has not even come close to equally representing the shifts in our demographics on any scale. It is goal of mine to focus on the minorities in our midst” those youth who are outcast and marginalized and try to empower them throughout the research and program evaluation process that I am doing this term.    

I also hope to do more research on the lack of diversity in youth literature (particularly up to YA).

The idea of being open and reflexive to mental gymnastics that Susan talked about are essential to growth and development as a researcher. We must all strive to avoid our own biases and to keep ourselves out of the way of our own research.