Literacy In American Lives
I was very impressed by this book. I really liked the fact that she disclosed all of her interview questions, and completely laid out the purpose of her study, how she was going to do it, the problems she though she would run into and didn't try and hide her purpose and intentions from the interview subjects. Everyone involved in this porject was treated with dignity and their stories were all told with respect for their situations and experiences. The manor in which all of the different lives are tied together to form a comprehensive look at literacy through out different times, values, and environments was well done. I was struck by the change in literacy standards. Literacy went from being unimportant as long as you could do the work you had to do such as farming or factory work to being something that we take for granted. Now it surprises us when we run across someone who is over ten and can't read the newspaper or a sign in some language. Illiteracy is often viewed now as a situation in which the person can't read English rather then that the person can't read in any language.
The most memorable part of the book for me was the when she said that children who have parents who don't value literacy are less literate. Its such a simple obvious thing but at the same time its so easy to ignore or misconstrue. You can talk until your blue in the face about the importance of education but if the parents don't do as they preach then children will not internalize the message. If there are no reading materials in the house other the the child's school books then the lesson that doing school work is important will not be believed.
