After reading the article on Sponsors of Literacy, I wondered who my sponsors of literacy were. I thought about my parents for putting me through school and now through college so that one day I can take full care of myself, my teachers for teaching me how to do those things and succeed at them, and society in general for requiring such great skills and assets from me in order to be successful in the future. However, all three groups had their own intentions. My parents in order to raise me well enough to take on the world, my teachers in order to do their jobs and do them well for their own benefit, and society for increasing that class gap and making economic gain through education and training in order for individuals such as myself to become more “literate.”
So, who are your sponsors of literacy? What do you believe were their intentions when they “sponsored” you? Were they good or bad intentions? Who benefited more from this “sponsorship?” What does that sponsor mean to you now? Do you believe that Brandt’s idea of “Sponsors of Literacy” holds true in your life?
I feel as if all of us will have very different experiences, and thus very different answers to this question.
My sponsors that have influenced my life from beginning to present are the same three as yours, but whenever I looked at my literacy log and thought about isolating the sponsors for that day is when I saw the sponsors I did not necessarily think of, for example, my employer.
During a single shift I have to read orders, work with a POS system that is simple buttons that I have to read and press, write down call in orders, read a list of cleaning duties, deliver orders to the correct numbers, and other minuscule things. Whenever I go through my shift at work I never consider just how much I read and write, but when listing it all out it is pretty amazing.
Of course, my professors had me using my literacy skills in each class all day, but for the longest continuous amount of time my employer was my sponsor. Their business definitely benefits more, because reading and writing allows simplicity for their customers, which makes them money. I benefit from my hourly wage but that is nothing compared to what they are making. With all this as proof Brandt’s idea of sponsorship definitely hold true in my life.
Someone who I think was a sponsor in my life with the least amount 0f ulterior motive is my grandmom. She wasn’t really part of my process of learning to read but ever since I was very little she would send me newspaper clippings in the mail. When I was only able to read a little bit she would send me funny comic strips that made her think of me and then as a I got older she would send me things that pertained to my life, like articles about being safe as a girl on a college campus or things to do with teaching because she knows that’s what I want to do. With her she used reading and a spreading of knowledge as a way to communicate with me and show that she was thinking about me. I think that she was definitely a sponsor of mine because she forced me to learn how to read the way the newspaper’s write their stories from a young age.