Megan McClure

 EDLT 3713

                         A Literacy Autobiography

     My memory of life begins with my memory of

literature   My mother studied English Education in

university and  loved  books of all kinds.  I was a

precocious reader and could 'read' signs for stores

like K-Mart and Target at two years old.  The

high-point of my preschool day was when my mom sat

down and read to me and I'm even told that I cried out

of frustration because I wanted to read the books

myself.  Seeing this desire and the abilities I

already had, my parents taught me to read on their

own.  We reviewed home-made flash cards and played

games with them.  I'm told that my favorite activity

was to make my own sentences out of these flashcards. 

We also watched educational TV like Sesame Street

together, and when I think back to the preschool

years, I see a time full of learning, closeness and

fun.  In addition to learning to read words on

flash-cards, my mom also read aloud to me and often 

encouraged me to read along with her. Thus, books we

read together like "Ping" and "Where the Wild Things

Are" fill fond places in my heart's library.  

     By the time I met my Kindergarten teacher for the

first time, I could read and write pretty well.  I

could read all the words on my mom's flashcards and

they weren't just easy ones like house and cat.  I was

infatuated with the written word and had hoped to

learn even more in school.  I was soon to be

disappointed though, and my memories of Kindergarten

through second grade consist of mostly ignored busy

work.  While absent mindedly reciting my alphabet with

my classmates were learning their alphabet, I  often

gazed in envy at the second and third graders who were

reading real chapter books

in their classes.  When asked by my mother what I

learned in school, I told her the ABC's.  Perhaps

realizing my boredom with the classroom, she

supplemented my education with after school lessons. 

I remember many afternoon trips to the local library

and checking out books  ranging from Amelia Bedelia to

biographies on important historical figures like

Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King.    I also

remember checking "Anne of Green Gables" out of the

library and feeling very proud when I marched up to

the checkout desk with a big kids book.  If I am

honest with myself, scholastic achievement and reading

were very tied up in my six-year-old self-image and

took pride in my ability to read such "grown up"

books.

     One other way my mother supported my literacy

development was through encouraging me to turn in

reports on topics ranging from Picasso to George

Washington. I remember using a set of old World Book

encyclopedias found at a

garage sale to write about Wolfgang Mozart.  She also

loved music and felt it was important that I  learned

of and at least appreciated the genius of musicians

like

Mozart and Bach.  In addition to this, we also watched

operas like "The Marriage of Figaro" and listened to

"Peter and the Wolf" together.  I also love to relate

my love of music and politics to the books I read and

I wonder if I learned this from her own multimedia

interactions.

     My mother valued highly cultural literacy and

viewed understanding the classics as a demonstration

of intelligence and class.  I doubt that  I agree with

this view entirely, but regardless of its' elitist

shades it has influenced the books I've read.  My

mother presented many highly regarded writers to me in

my childhood and I still esteem many of them highly. 

My mother modeled judgment of 'high' and 'low'

literature before me and this has played a part in my

own judgment of literature.  I had the 'high' novels

for my own fulfillment but soon discovered not many

other children shared my reading taste.  Thus arose a

dichotomy between reading for private fulfillment and

social engagement, which remains imbedded in my psyche

today.

      This more social aspect of reading first began

when I met a neighborhood girl who loved reading

series books like the Sweet Valley Twins.  From 2nd to

7th

grade we chose from her large library of Horse Club

and Baby Sitters Club books.  I often visited  her and

we spent our summer afternoons reading together. 

I believe many of the subconscious guides of social

interaction  I now use were gained through this

reading.  Many of the books were about friendship and

role playing.  During the summer before my fourth

grade year we formed a book club and at its

peak we had a membership of 8 other neighborhood

friends and acquaintances.  We had weekly meetings and

read and discussed books together.  The series we read

the most of that summer was "The Baby-Sitters Club"

and following the cue the books set for us, we tried

setting up  businesses of our own.  I remember trying

to hawk friendship bracelets along with a fellow club

member and needless to say, we learned a lesson all

business people learn, desire to succeed does not

necessarily mean you will.  This wasn't my only social

experience with literature though, and in the seventh

grade I befriended another book lover.  We discussed

favorite novelists and soon began a friendship based

on this mutual love.  I discovered the horror thriller

literary genre through this friendship and by the time

of my high-school graduation, my friend and I had

devoured the entire Stephen King library.    

     In addition to devouring Stephen King tales with

my friend, I also spent time immersing myself in books

and music that explored my growing dissatisfaction

with the status quo.  I became enamored with rock n

roll during this time and its lyrics were a way for me

to reconcile the previously mentioned dichotomy of the

isolation of high art and the social discourse

possible in low art. Finally I had a medium that

allowed to to explore complex issues and still allowed

me to interact socially.  This social interaction

primarily occurred through internet forums, and under

the auspice of popular rock music fanhood I

participated in discussions ranging from the origin of

gnosticism to criticism of writers reported to

influence the lyrics of the band.  Some of these

authors mentioned were Kurt Vonnegut and William

Burroughs, and as I followed this path I was led to

other works which placed social systems under a

critical eye.  These discoveries have been a large

influence on my beliefs today.

     I believe that one primary use of literacy is

discovering the world around you. I grew up in a rural

and tightly knit environment.  The world that my

school displayed was safe and  isolationist.  I

however was a very curious child and

often-used books to help answer my questions. I

remember reading "Number the Stars" and thus becoming

very interested in learning about the great human

tragedy of the Holocaust.  After reading that book I

followed up with The Diary of Anne Frank and several

non-fiction books about the Jewish culture.  This

process, of reading a fictional book and using it as a

springboard for other topics, is a tool I still use as

a literate person.  I use books to explore my

interests, both in academia and leisure.  For example,

three big interests that I have right now are music,

social justice and religion. Much of what I'm

currently reading and exploring relate in some way to

these interests.  My favorite

musical group is the rock band U2.  Since I believe

that art in all forms serve as a forum of expression

for ideas, I have used this obsession to lead me into

other previously undiscovered literary directions. 

For example, through a fan forum discussion on a

particular lyric, I became aware of Fodor

Doestevesky's Crime and Punishment had influence on

the group's lyricist.  The forum poster posted an

excerpt of that book and it intrigued me enough to

read Doestevesky's Crime and Punishment.

    In this case my next discovery, the Russian

literary luminary Doestevesky, shared many interests

with my musical inspirations.  Like U2, he appeared to

be fascinated with human rights and Christianity and

the journey I let him lead me with his work is one I

am still traveling on now.  My love of Crime and

Punishment led to interest in his other

novels and I have so far read The Idiot and the

Brother's Karamazov.  My curiosity with  Dostoevesky's

themes have lead me to other European authors like

Vladcev Havel who have explored the importance of

freedom and human dignity and the

claim that God did indeed create all men equal.  

     Much like my six year old self image was greatly

affected by my mastery of reading; I find myself using

my artistic taste, including music and literature to

create and modify my self-identity.  I believe,

perhaps incorrectly, that

a look into an individual's library and CD collection

can tell you much about the person's passions and

personality. "Show me the books he loves and I shall

know the man far better than through mortal

friends"(Mitchell).   For example a glance into my

personal CD collection and bookshelves would reveal an

interest in my three main interests.  You would see

books by Martin Luther King, Bishop Desmond Tutu and

Robert Coles.  You would also see my collection of

rock n roll literature, including books over U2, The

Smashing Pumpkins, REM and Jimmy Hendrix.  In addition

you would see a collection of CS Lewis books, a book

called "The Jesus I Didn't Know" a book about King

David and two translations of the Bible.  I in fact

often use these symbols to introduce myself and strike

up dialogue with others displaying similar signals of

interests.

      Although I am still exploring my ideas of the

world and the role education plays in it, at this time

I hold educational beliefs that are strongly

influenced by my own childhood development.  One

belief  I am currently exploring is that multimedia

plays an important part the literacy development of

today's children.  If our goal as teachers is to shape

a future for children that models literacy in all

senses of the term, I feel we must acknowledge the

role that other medias play in this development.  The

television and Internet often play a bigger role in

our children's culture than literature, and I feel

that one of the many challenges I will face as a

teacher is marrying their interests in other media

forms like music and film into  relevant discussions

of literature.  In addition to this, I believe

multimedia has changed and will continue to change the

nature of textual conversation.  I hope to be able to

adequately use the tools of technology to face these

changes.  I want my studentsto be proficient in their

grasp of language to communicate ideas globally and

receive global feedback.  I believe that message

boards and newsgroups, if properly monitored, can be

an excellent place for this exchange to occur.

     One other belief that I hold is that customizing

a youth's education is important.  Since I studied in

a school only containing a hundred students,  I

greatly value the

interpersonal contact small classrooms afford. I 

realize that a teacher cannot control class size, but

I do believe they can take initiative in understanding

their pupils as individuals.  Not every child fits the

average mold of development; some are

more advanced and need more challenge, while others

are in earlier stages of development and thus need

different attention.  Although I feel in general that

my

education experience was adequate, I often felt bored

in my class, and I often felt like the

teacher only taught to children fitting the norm.  I

believe teaching only to the norm is an ineffective

practice.  It ignores the children on both sides of

the curve and often leads to intellectual stagnation

with the ones it is designed to teach.  In contrast, a

customized education observes the student's strengths

and weaknesses and sets a bar for the student to

reach.  It recognizes a student's gifts and interests

and encourages him or her to contribute to

theclassroom and community.  If I were to think back

on teachers that made a real difference in my life,

they were individuals that viewed me as a person,

worthy of respect and dialogue.  This is the kind of

teacher I admired and my ideology of education has

been strongly affected by these experiences.

       Literacy has played a large role in my search

to understand my world.  I believe that a book can

open up a new world to its reader and can move them to

make changes in both themselves and the world they

live in.  I believe that one important role that I as

a Language Arts educator must play is showing my

students the possibilities that books provide and to

creating a framework that encourages them to become

life-long readers.  I hope through my explorations of

my own literary development and the role that literacy

instructors play I can achieve this goal.  I

personally have a passion for the written word and I

hope through my teaching to infect others with this

passion.

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