Hearth of democracy: Literacy

Hearth of democracy: Literacy

By John Michael Phillips

MALANG, East Java (JP): Every year articles are printed in
local newspapers concerning the need for literacy in Indonesia.
These articles remind readers that literacy means the ability to
both read and write as the latter is often forgotten. In fact,
without including writing in defining literacy we fail to fully
understand its true dimensions, since the ability to use ideas is
as important as the ability to gather them. Second, we learn that
literacy has an expanded meaning to include such things as
cultural literacy and technological literacy.

The great worry today is the technological gap that exists
between those who can and do learn, and those who cannot and have
no opportunity to learn. For a number of reasons technological
literacy is overrated in the sense that technology is getting
easier to use physically and to some extent mentally, but how,
when, and why to use it is as complicated as ever.

Thus, it is quite clear that technology literacy discussions
should focus on the need to enhance the ability to discern
appropriate uses of technology, and not assume that technological
solutions are always the most appropriate.

My favorite example of this occurred during the space race
between the U.S. and the former USSR. Both nations had to solve
the problem of writing in zero gravity of space. The richer and
more technologically oriented U.S. spent a US$1 million to solve
the problem inventing a new pen. The poor Soviet Union solved the
problem by using cheap pencils.

An even more important element of literacy is also being
ignored, its purpose-communication. Literacy is usually defined
as the ability to read and write in order to communicate or
understand communication through interaction with text. But not
all interaction with text is sufficient.

When I was young with bad eyesight, I thought that when I got
glasses, I would be able to read since I could now see. So,
distinctions between reading and writing and communicating are
important if one believes that the primary purpose of learning
how to read and write is to foster better communication. Reading
is not simply seeing, nor writing simply scribbling. But even
more important is, what kind of understanding and what kind of
communication?

Some 40,000 copies a year of Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf
are reportedly sold illegally in Germany. I also seem to remember
that when Mao was alive his little red book had the largest
publication and widest circulation of any modern book and may
have rivaled the Koran and the Bible for "popularity". Finally,
it is certainly true that like colonialists compared to the
colonized before the modern post World War II era, "white" South
Africans during apartheid had a much higher rate of literacy than
did "blacks" (because blacks had poor education). So literacy can
be easily misused to foster oppression and tyranny particularly
when reading-writing are divorced from true understanding. The
job of the "hero" in George Orwell's book 1984 was to rewrite
history texts based on the latest party line, "newspeak".

It's not that I advocate allowing people to remain illiterate.
Literacy is potentially the most liberating of all human skills.
Literacy skills are crucial and essential to the building of a
truly democratic society. The whole idea that "majority rules" is
premised on the majority being literate. The initial use of
"literacy laws" in the U.S. was not to deny the right to vote to
particular groups of people based on racial or ethnic background,
but to insure that the voters could read and write and thus,
understand the issues on which they cast votes.

That the law was subverted to keep minorities from having
access to power does not alter the fact that an educated,
literate population is the real strength of a democratic country.
In fact, one definition of literacy is "people who are educated."
So the definition of literacy should include the idea that a
literate person is one who understands. But there is even more to
literacy.

People who write will tell you that writing is not just
communicating with others, it is about communicating with
yourself so that you yourself understand better. Writing forces
you to exceed surface understanding to the deeper levels of the
conscious and unconscious mind, so as to discuss with yourself
about what you know and understand of the world and the way it
works. In this way, you are able to explore your ideas, beliefs,
and dreams. That someone may be able to read, understand, and
empathize with you in a true act of communication is like
discovering the toy in the box of crackerjacks-pure,
unadulterated joy.

But the act of writing and the act of reading impose a duty on
us to seek communication and understanding in the light and not
the darkness. That is, we have a duty in society to use our
literacy skills to seek truth, not to spread lies and believe
falsehoods. Ultimately then, true literacy is not a privilege for
the few or even a choice for the many, but a responsibility for
us all.

DR. John Michael Phillips is an educator and consultant to
IBMT Surabaya.