Keyana Radcliffe DB 1

Literacy is the ability to read and write.
Based on my research, the definition of literacy would be, a form of understanding through reading and writing that allows you to function or maneuver through society effectively.
From the Ted talk, John described literacy as the stepping stone through life. He believed that literacy can help us stop the cycle of poverty, hunger, and crime. I agree with John to a certain extent. It is true that having a sense of literacy, opens your eyes to different possibilities that you wouldn’t have known existed. For example, during slavery our ancestors didn’t have access to schooling, but when given access to a book or bible they taught themselves how to read. Reading and writing was deemed important to slaves, because they weren’t allowed to, and from my knowledge of how society works when the government doesn’t want you to know the truth they’ll put it into books. This is similar to when we sign up for subscriptions or agreements, how many people actually read the privacy and cancellation policy. John mentioned statistics and one statistic that stuck out to me the most was the one in which he said “85% of juveniles in the court system are functionally illiterate”, which makes sense because most individuals I know who were incarcerated went in illiterate and came out more competent in reading and writing; some even able to represent themselves in court just by taking full advantage of their time by taking full advantage of the prison libraries, and educating themselves on the laws. And because prisons even have programs that help you further your education and give you access to all the diplomas or degrees you may be missing, those who went in illiterate come out a graduate, and with trades under their belt. I don’t agree with John to the full extent, because there are some people who are literate, but are still homeless, poor, and committing crimes. This government is built on wins and losses, I believe the environment or the people we surround ourselves with dictate our future and whether or not we would turn out a statistic or actually put our knowledge and all we know in literacy to use.