Comments on: Literacy and the differential value of knowledge

By: Trisha Robles

Trisha Robles — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 20:39:56 +0000

The topic poses a wonderfully thought-provoking yet exciting take on the subject. While I was reading, I was able to reflect on my country’s history as well, in relation to literacy and competence since the article relates the concept of literacy in other forms of knowledge that connects with colonialism. In the Philippines, we have been a highly colonized country by three big countries (US, Spain, Japan). No Filipinos held the law during this time because they were devalued of their ways of living which is also the same with knowledge being highly valued with literacy and devalued with the traditional or informal ways. It can be explicitly seen historically that it was the colonizers like US who introduced the value of literacy in the country and since then, Filipinos tend to equate one’s strength with being well literate. I have to say that I agree with the author; literacy became a blinding light of success. It is unfortunate that in society’s standards, your worth is equated with your diploma, your degree, your recognitions or awards. If one does not have any proof of their own competence, their worth is not enough. I happen to think about the relation of literacy and knowledge to the idea of being ‘civilized’ because in today’s world, you practically ‘belong’ in society if people see you as well-educated or well-literate. It also means that there is the opposite side of the coin where if people don’t see you literate enough, you are an outcast. However, I do believe that knowledge is power and there is nothing wrong with attaining degrees or achieving ownership to your own academic excellence but is that all there is in an individual’s worth? I remember a new phenomenon that evolved in this time of a pandemic which is (nonverbatim) ‘productivity syndrome’ where people nowadays equate their worth with how productive they are or how much output they produce in a day. On a surface level, this is seen as good because there is some truth in productivity being a good indicator of success; however, in the long run it can be seen as unsustainable because this kind of thinking might lead to burnout. This phenomenon can also be related to knowledge and competence being equated to literacy because in today’s world, productivity is also equated to competence. It is quite unfortunate that our society has come to this kind of thinking; that one is discriminated just because they were able to attain knowledge in traditional ways. I happen to value people who have great skills in a field that they did not really educate for, which means they just learned it on their own, they were taught informally or they are just that talented. I do hope that all of us continue to work for a safer and accepting world where people are not degraded just because they learned informally since learning or literacy is, unfortunately, a privilege.

By: Gene Barrera

Gene Barrera — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 01:30:25 +0000

Before anything else, I would like to express how this entry was truly eye-opening for me. As I was reading, I immediately reflected on how the past occurrences associated with ownership/custodianship can still be experienced today, and is actually very relevant in my country, the Philippines. Literacy-mediated learning has long been considered the foundation for anything, especially when it comes to establishing and recognizing one’s education, occupation, and social status. Skills and talents alone are not anymore enough in this world where power has permanently taken over every sector of our societies. Not only that I think that power relations have significantly affected social connections, but also our societal perceptions. Although the topic proposed the importance of having written documents for protection of rights, I do think that it still somewhat reduced the value of culture or mayhaps tainted it in some way.

By: Trisha Robles

Trisha Robles — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 23:15:48 +0000

The topic poses a wonderfully thought-provoking yet exciting take on the subject. In my country, the Philippines, we are a conquered land, not by one but by three countries (US, Spain, Japan). No Filipinos held the law during this time because they were devalued of their ways of living and being on that land. I have to say that I agree with the author; literacy became a blinding light of success. In today’s society, you are more than welcome to be successful only if you possess such titles, such as a degree, a diploma, contracts, or even awards, which in return makes it difficult to see how beautiful it is to learn and earn other skills that an individual may or may want to have.

By: Anas

Anas — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 00:09:00 +0000

In Jordon, 60% of the population resides in Amman which is heavily influenced by the Western world through pop culture. As such, acknowledgement of literacy is almost purely seen from the perspective of acquiring knowledge through schooling. However, Jordon is rich in culture and tradition as the country itself is the intersection of the three continents of the ancient world. An example of this is Petra, or ancient Jordan. It is a country with deep-rooted traditions in all aspects of social life which are influenced by neighbouring countries such as Syria and Saudi Arabia with its strong Bedouin influence. Relating this to the knowledge and learning not mediated through literacy especially in the Bedouin nomadic culture and its strong connection with the everchanging landscape of the desert, many of the Bedouin information of the land passed through generations is not recognised as legitimate knowledge especially through the eyes of the Western world or as Professor so aptly put “a world that has a literacy fetish”. The infiltrations of the Western influence also means that many Bedouins have abandoned their nomadic and tribal traditions for a modern urban lifestyle.

By: Xinyue Ji

Xinyue Ji — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 04:48:03 +0000

The author highlights the importance of literate practices. Truly speaking, in the contemporary society in China, the written proof is significant including the degree certification and practices certification. People believe that a person have a positive attitude if he learn something well and gain a certification. As a result, a person can obtain a position and be valuable.

By: Shaher Mohammed Shaher Asiri

Shaher Mohammed Shaher Asiri — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 11:53:17 +0000

As this article shows that literacy has a broad functions for our society than that its narrow meaning which explains the ability to read and write which leading individulas to become literate. There is another aspect which lietracy can help folks in a particular society to secure and protect their rights, for exmaple, by writing down in a piece of paper in which that written papre will become a strong evidence for their rights. As we have seen in this article about the old residents in Australia, they did not have written paper that points that this land is theirs. But this does not mean that they did not own or have the rights to settel in that land.

By: Nana

Nana — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 10:10:16 +0000

A similar situation happened in my country around the year 1500 when Spaniards came to Colombia to colonise the territory. they built houses and founded cities, so as they considered that they discovered the land they were owners. They ignored aboriginals’ rights to own their land for different reasons but one of them, because aboriginals did not have a written document that proof the ownership of the land. this is another case in which illiteracy became a issue that may affect many people and unfortunately nowadays it still happen; many people is rejected in some jobs because they do not have a document that proof they graduated from a recognised institution. here is when I make a distinction in the relationship between literacy and education; a person can be literate and at the same time a person with no education and vice-versa.

By: Ary

Ary — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 01:02:43 +0000

As regards the concept of evidence being a “piece of written” paper, I’d like to address the influence of “certificates” granted upon training/educating courses completion. Admittedly, certificates as proof of education bring society, and its members, numerous positive traits: assurance of caliber workforce, proof of achievement, and many more. Under such circumstances, in most cases that happened in Vietnam, employment has been based solely on how much “certified” knowledge the candidates are possessing, while, in reality, the experience (which goes far beyond what being taught in tertiary education) certain candidates gain ever since they started working could hardly be “proven” under a form of a piece of paper. And it’s not often that such candidates are given chances to prove their worth and show the “other unproven knowledge” that they have; thus, the chances that a bachelor winning over a master of the same professional field whose resumes are dense with a long list of “education achievement” are thin. By and large, there are much more positive signals as the Vietnamese employers of the new era are looking for something more than mere pieces of paper as evidence of capability.

By: Thi Bach Tuyet Nguyen

Thi Bach Tuyet Nguyen — Sat, 25 Aug 2018 12:15:58 +0000

This article has reminded me about uneducated children living in the mountainous areas of Vietnam called “Sapa”. Typically, a clip about a-H’Mong girl in Sapa speaking English fluently with native speakers was spread out widely on social media network in 2011. Finding the identity of that girl, people were surprised at her abilities of speaking English. As she is living in Sapa where is thronged with tourists. Then, English proficiency is regarded as an advantage for anyone becoming a tourist guide like her to earn their living. This means that living in such environment helps her practice and improve her English skills though she is not officially taught English or educated. However, she could not write, which puts an emphasis on the importance of a piece of writing.

By: Lai Ng

Lai Ng — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 05:20:57 +0000

Not only this article but in many other articles, literacy is closely connected to the ability of reading and writing. This connection is always a positive and ubiquitous. Professor Piller clearly states that in most situation, literacy always mediated learning and has positive value accumulation on ownership, property rights and personal interest. The example of Australian Aboriginal explicitly explain the importance of literacy in recording of personal interest especially in ownership, rights and power.

By: Khoa Nguyen

Khoa Nguyen — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 14:59:44 +0000

I can relate to this post so much after reading it. I have got a friend who is at the same age as mine. Because of some financial issues, he had to quit school when he was at the age of 15. He then followed his father and worked as a carpenter at home or worked at the places people hire him to work. The thing is he was such a skillful carpenter that he earned a lot of money to support his family. Acknowledging that he could do better in big cities, he then decided to move to another city to seek for a job related to his field. However, since he did not have any written proofs proving that he has the expert knowledge as being a carpenter, he was refused by many big companies. The only “company” that allowed him to work at was just a small workshop, and he did not get as much as money as he used to earn at the time he worked at his hometown. This story is such a naked truth, but it also shows that how important a piece of writing, or a written document, is, and of course, the necessity of formal education, or how valuable it is to a person’s life.

By: nicole

nicole — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 09:01:27 +0000

This article was really interesting for me since I never had thought about the relationship between the property right and human beings. It is actually quite unfortunate that the ownership of the country in songs, stories, dances or paintings are more likely to be devalued since they are not recorded as formal written documents or papers as we can see from the example of Aboriginal. In my country, more than 1000 years ago, there were lots of war among different families or groups. Back that time, in order to hand down those memories and recordings of wars to the next generation, people made a song for the war singing what happened and who won and so on without writing on paper. And there were monks who travel whole country playing traditional instruments and singing this song so as to share the stories and let more people know about the wars. Those songs have been passed down to generation to next generation until when people were able to write those stories. So, in this case, I think, because of these story telling culture, we are able to know about the details of the war and study our history.

By: Piiigah (kamali)

Piiigah (kamali) — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 02:56:22 +0000

This article was a very interesting analysis of literacy and its position in our life. Lack of literacy can have implications that last for years. It can ruin the life of one person or an entire group of people.

Modern life especially is focused on collecting written evidence such as email approvals or text message proofs. People will look for written documents which need the ability of literacy to comprehend – this will continue for as long as judges and courts rely on written evidence more than oral agreements.

By: Nidhi Dhir

Nidhi Dhir — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 02:07:59 +0000

In India most people who are skilled but not literate (who do not know reading and writing) are often exploited as they who employ them usually earn more from their skills than they pay to them and they remain underpaid, since they don’t have certificate although they possess skills. Moreover, many skills are extinct on the verge of extinction because they are passed from generation to generation orally such as many art forms are disappearing puppetry Art and craft paintings because no educational bodies like school or private institutes teach these skills and it is practiced by the people of certain tribes and villages

By: Au

Au — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 11:49:22 +0000

I totally agree that we can learn something from elder people without formal instruction. The example of the son of a shoe-maker reflects my case. My father bought a computer when I was in grade 4. Actually, I did not learn anything from books about how to use computer in a right way. My father just showed me something basic things to turn it on or shut down, and then he just letted me play around with the computer. I learned how to use computer from my father’s instruction and reflecting on my own mistakes.

By: Yan Yan

Yan Yan — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 09:30:24 +0000

In China, many skills are inherited in family units. These techniques are not through literacy, but flow between families. These techniques can be song and dance or production techniques. Many excellent works are lost because there is no world record. There are different cultures and dialects in China but they all have a common script, a common government, common measurements, and common shared culture and history since 221 BC under the First Emperor of Qin. The First Emperor of Qin measures to unify the written language have made the written language and writing form a uniform norm, which has become the carrier of transcending the time and space limitations and inheriting Chinese culture. Moreover, it is helpful to form the mental state and culture of the unity of the Chinese nation and has become an important factor to enhance the cohesion of the Chinese nation.