- To my best knowledge and experience, I have to agree that Black communities have been given equal access to literacy necessary to be successful in contemporary America. In regards to motive or influence to wanting to engage oneself in literacy development is hard to argue for, since there is some deficiency on that end. But for the most part, today any person living in a black community has the opportunity to get a free education, with the assurance that you won’t miss a meal, access to public library that provide extra resources like printers, wi-fi, computers, and etc. And most recently, now kids can take home computers to work with for school during those late hours, when most places are closed. All this continues on into their college years, but only as an opportunity. The sense of motive or encouragement still might need some work.
- In the Middle Eastern and Arab weekly discussion we saw how in one of the larger populated countries where there is a deficiency in literacy how bad a nation can look. When there is a lack of proper literacy standards, things like health, economy, success rate, public image, all the categories that maybe considered a necessity for a nation decline. But then when we look at our Letter to Ms. Adichi weekly assignment, we see how one child who had nothing but passion for reading, took her motives and literacy development to a bigger platform to help spread an important word in regards to less bias books, and to involve all shapes and color of human beings, because you don’t have to be a white family, mom and dad, blonde hair, blue eye, in order to be the idealistic image of a happy family or family in general. And the proof is in how all these forms of messages that were put out into the world are here with us right now, in a our current college course. These are how literacy is used as a tool of power by someone like Ms. Adichi, or against a country like Syria.
- I saw this test as a brain teaser and some sort of way to pick on someone let alone a race. In number 10, “In the first circle below write the last letter of the first word beginning with “L”,” finding the correct answer would be nearly impossible, and maybe it was meant that way to make sure that black-voters couldn’t vote. And there were more questions with the same sort of twist. I can only imagine trying to take a test like this, while barely getting an equal education at the time.
- One way I think we can establish more equality for the Black/African-American community is by maybe finding someway to improve some of the poorer communities living standards. It can be improving building or community conditions. One of the main issues of the poorer communities are things like, no hot water for a certain time period, no elevator services, power outages, no water in some places. When canceling out a stressful condition like harsh living conditions, maybe that will open up a window for other great intentions, seeing that now someone is in a comfortable situation.
- In the Article “With COVID, the African-American Literacy Crisis will get much worse”, the main argument was that there is already a very low rate of African-Americans at a proficient reading level, now that schools are closed and everything was pushed via online learning methods there maybe an even harsher decline. If not handled properly, not only will African-American reading efficiency be at a decline, for a lot their kids their education will come to a halt. The best fit solution in the article was said to be to target the students at the youngest age possible and make sure that they are up to par with their peers, not just African-American but all races. It was said that if the decline in their literacy level was not aided properly, it won’t just impact the grades and graduation rating for the African-Americans, but it can also hinder kids’ success in college, career, and life. And these low literacy rates can become intergenerational, since the strongest indicator of a child’s success in school is his mother’s level of education. I can see how these ideas can better the African-American communities, but I believe that the older folks in the community also play an important role in improving the African-American literacy levels for all. When the people you grow up around and first look up to are the ones to encourage you to develop your own literacy, it will be kind of hard to find yourself astray and at a lower level of literacy. So maybe find someway to engage the elders in any type of literacy development as well.
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One thought on “Conversation 7”
Hi Abdel, I agree with your insight about the crucial role of engaging the older generation within the community to foster and encourage literacy development among African Americans, as their influence and guidance could significantly impact younger generations’ educational achievements and aspirations.