Yagelski Response

I want to say right off the bat that when I originally read the Yagelski piece I thought it was one of the driest most boring things I have ever had the “privilege” of reading. Then I went to class and the discussion that ensued really got the gears in my head turning. I guess I just needed the perspective of others to really get the most out of the piece and realize how much the work by Yagelski contained in terms of thoughts and ideas on literacy.

The biggest thing that came to mind about the piece by Yagelski is the idea that literacy was used to control people. Literacy in this sense means knowing how to read and write. The idea that it has been used to control people makes sense. Way back “in the day” only certain people actually knew how to read and write. These people were usually church officials and noblemen. By being the only people in society who could read and write it was easier to manipulate and control the common man. They had to listen to everything you said to them because they had no other means of obtaining information on their own.

Gradually the common person gained literacy, but now that they have literacy, do they still have the ability to read and write whatever they want? Some would say, “Yes freedom of speech,” but at the same time is our freedom of speech truly free. There is still some degree on censorship that goes on in the United States. When a book is being published, someone along the line, other than the author himself, has to decide if it should be published or not. If the book is not considered something that people should read because it is too offenseful or some other reason, it won’t get published. Also, some people think that posting on the internet is completely free reign and you can say whatever you want when you want to say it, but even that is not entirely true. If you post in a forum or blog on a site and one of the site moderators does not like what you post they can take it down. There is freedom of speech to an extent in the United States, but not entirely. U.S. citizens do have more freedom than many other controls that control what the press puts out, what internet websites can be accessed by its citizens and what you are even allowed to say in public without some kind of punishment.

Basically when it comes down to it, write freely. Write long, write jibberish and write in pig-latin. Just write because we all have the freedom to write and that is something that we should take advantage of.