Literacy Memoir (Draft), ENG-1101-013 Morgan Walker September 5, 2013

In the modern world, approximately 796 million people are illiterate, meaning they do not possess the ability to read or write. The statistics are overwhelming. Does this mean that 796 million people experience communication barriers on a daily basis? Are 796 million people in a constant fight to even get by in a modern world? Personally, I have discovered that there is more to literacy than just the ability to read and write, and furthermore, I myself have experienced communication beyond pen and paper. In fact, as time quickly approaches, the idea of being able to read and write is becoming a foreign concept. It is essential to life, but it no longer defines life. Although I do possess the ability to read and write, I have learned more about myself through communicating in other ways, such as nonverbally, and throughout my own body than I ever would have through pen and paper. From the time I was eighteen months old, my parents recognized that I had a passion for movement. I learned to walk in a mere nine months, and I began to dance by the time I was 18 months old. Therefore, when I became of age, they enrolled me in The Academy of Performing Arts, a prominent dance studio. Throughout the sixteen years it was a part of my life, I danced almost every genre. Lyrical, tap, jazz, swing, and even hip-hop just to name a few. As I grew older, I realized that through moving my body by dance, I developed certain feelings. Whether it is sadness, anger, happiness, or excitement, every dance brewed a passionate feeling in my veins. My senior year of high school, my dance teacher gave me an incredible opportunity to actually teach three dance classes at the studio. More specifically, I taught two elementary tap classes, and one

introductory pre-school class. Through this experience, the way I used my body as kinesthetic literacy was even more defined. Communicating with my students by dance taught both discipline and self-esteem, solving our problems through a unified dance instead of talking it out. Without dance, I wouldnt have been able to express myself the way I can today. Using my body as a way of release and communication grew throughout my time dancing. However, I did not altogether lose verbal communication skills. Therefore, through dance, I have obtained kinesthetic literacy in addition to the everyday reading and writing aspect of every day life. Not only was dance a prominent form of nonverbal communication in my life, communicating with a cousin who did not possess the ability to hear was essential in my journey to literacy. As a child, Kyle did not express the normal signs of deafness. In fact, he was not diagnosed as deaf until he was four years old, defying the typical diagnosis at a maximum of two years of age. Therefore, he automatically lacked communication skills that are taken for granted everyday. Once his disability was discovered, he was transferred to a school for deaf children, which would increase his competency in sign language. Not only did he become completely fluent in sign language within a minimal period of time, he now has a Masters in ASL and is continuing his education for a PhD. Kyle did not let sign language define him; instead, he took the bull by the horns and became a professor of the language. It was difficult to express my everyday thoughts to him, considering the fact I am not fluent in sign language myself. However, through reading his lips and learning the sign language alphabet, its almost as if theres no communication barriers at all. Its amazing, the fact that I can communicate with someone who does not speak. Therefore, nonverbal literacy is an essential component in

methods of communication. In fact, it is fair to say that sign language and communicating with the deaf could refer to and/or involve kinesthetic literacy. In both forms, body movements are used to both express feelings and communicate. Throughout the years, technology has become the most powerful thing on the planet. It is used everyday by every single person in one way or another. A television, a cell phone, and a computer are just a few examples of ways technology is used on a day to day basis. Today, technology essentially controls almost every aspect of every day life. However, a generational gap separates the appreciation and use of technology. Therefore, does technology dissolve or expand literacy? As a whole, this is a question that must be debated. However, as a young adult, technology has been the most prominent form of literacy in my life. Not only does technology affect the definition of literacy, it completely alters it. As I was taught to read a book and write a paper, my children will be expected to know how to turn a computer off and on, and operate a smart phone. Technology alters the standards of literacy. Depending on perspective, it could in fact replace literacy altogether. For me, it expands on my other forms of atypical literacy. For example, the knowledge I have obtained of how to work a laptop is an important skill to get by in society, considering e-mail is a much more common method of communication than a hand-written letter. Essentially, the use of technology has broadened my definition of literacy, and more importantly, it has expanded it. Literacy cannot single-handedly be defined. Throughout my life, multiple events have shaped me into a person who possess not only the ability to read and write, but also the ability to succeed in the world today. I feel that success is not so much based of off monetary value, but the ability to be happy, and anyone can possess it. It is a matter of

desire to be the best one can be, and the work that fulfills that desire. Therefore, literacy exists within every individual; its just a matter of finding what brings it out.