The Purposes of Education & Literacy

1. The Purposes of Education & Literacy • h PCW September 2006

2. Purpose 1:Literacy & Education as Adaptation PCW September 2006

3. Literacy as Adaptation • “To be able to work in the everyday world” • “To become fluent in one’s social setting” • “People should learn what they want and will need in the future” • “People learn how to perform tasks that are all part of daily life” • “People learn how to fit in and function well in the dominant culture” • “People can participate in everyday life and also master their culture as well”

4. Purpose 2:Literacy & Education as A State of Grace PCW September 2006

5. Literacy as a State of Grace • “The ability to think creatively and knowing how to solve problems” • “The ability to think wisely” • “Learning how to think or developing the ability to think” • “Literacy is really about the ability to think not the ability to do” • “Developing the ability to think creatively, solve problems in interesting ways, and …deal with them appropriately.”

6. Purpose 3:Literacy & Education as Separation PCW September 2006

7. Literacy as Separation • “Becoming withdrawn from the people you love the most” • “Education sometimes sets you apart from people. The more you know can sometimes make you appear to be estranged” • “As individuals become more educated, they develop skills and ideas that mark them as somehow different from people around them, like their co-workers, and even their families” • “Once a person learns so much their mind thinks differently from the people around them, so in a sense education is great but sometimes it brings unexpected challenges”

8. Purpose 4:Literacy & Education as Power PCW September 2006

9. Literacy as Power • “Power in Society: The power makes them help themselves, other people, or communities” • “The smarter you are, the more power you have” • “The power comes from the level of literacy and education” • “Education is important because it helps to redistribute power among people” • “If ‘knowledge is power,’ then those who are educated have the power to help others” • “The more you learn, the more potent you words and ideas will become”

10. Purpose 5:Literacy & Education as Indoctrination PCW September 2006

11. Literacy as Indoctrination • “Reflects the values of a particular culture” • “People learn literacy to conform to the values of a particular culture” • “In school, ‘successful’ is compared to ONE point of view, instead of a wide range of points of view” • “In order to be defined as successful, students in school must demonstrate they have assimilated the values of their culture” • “Successfully conformed to an existing, dominant culture”

12. Literacy as Indoctrination “Just because people as a culture have set a standard on what they think is “good education,” does that make another person illiterate?”

13. “The Dominant Culture” Who is “the dominant culture?” Do we adapt to it? Should we adapt to it? Do we have to adapt to it?

14. Dead Words Shakespearian terms such as “Thee” “Thou” “Shalt” “Whilst” have all departed… Personally, I think “Illiterate” needs to die as well.

15. Works Cited selected words and phrases, appearing in random order, by random PCW1004 students Vania, Mohanad, Sydney, So Yen, Eric, Julia, Will, Kapree, Porcha, Saya, Chihiro, Aston, Shauntia, Al, Esther, Tiffany, Aidair, Gabe, Lauren, Hao Yun, Dmarco, Courtney, Emmanuel