Brandt's "Literacy in American Lives"

One of this week’s readings was written by Deborah Brandt, a professor here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for nearly 30 years. Her studies are largely based around the social aspects of literacy learning, as well as mass literacy in both the 20^th and 21^st centuries. In addition, she looks into great detail of the connection between literacy proficiencies and changes in economy. Brandt has written many essays and articles and is in the process of a new book about the influence of mass literacy over the past 60 years on changes in technology and economics. She is most famous for her award-winning book, “Literacy in American Lives,” which was published in 2001 and contains the article that was assigned for the class reading.

            In the excerpt that is in our reading packet, Brandt shows her research about two individuals who had very similar life occurrences, though ended up with very different experiences. Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez were both born in 1969 and moved with their families to the same city in Wisconsin. Branch is a European American with parents that held high positioned jobs – professor and real-estate executive. On the other hand, Lopez is a Mexican American whose parents attended technical college and held jobs as a shipping clerk and in a bookstore. Brandt looked into these differences amongst the similarities to find out why their lives went in opposite directions. Although both individuals were taking on projects of self-initiated learning, with Branch in computer programming and Lopez in Spanish, the availability of materials and communicative systems that were needed in aid for learning had differed for each student. Branch’s family was much more fortunate, allowing him easy access to beneficial and necessary assistance. Also, Branch had chosen a language that was rapidly growing as computers were becoming more readily available and rising in demand. Lopez’s choice of language did not hold significance in the forces of the economy, especially in the Midwest where Spanish had been almost invisible to those of the community. The investments in this Spanish department did not match that of investments in computer science and various booming technology fields. The claim that is taken from all of this extended research is that literacy abilities and achievements can differ depending on social and economic class of an individual. It is what we do with this information though that is the important part.

            Critics of Brandt’s book say that though it is called “Literacy in American Lives,” she fails to look into individuals across the country and only pays attention to those of the same geographic area. She is applauded, though, for highlighting that knowledge attained through literacy is more valuable and powerful in society than tangible resources.

            Brandt suggests the idea of equal opportunity being offered in schools all over as a way to try and close the gap of literacy levels between varying socioeconomic groups. I agree with Brandt on this idea and believe that giving students the same chance to succeed regardless of home environments and resources is critical in allowing individuals to reach their highest potential.