Reading Lu and Rose

The readings by Rose and Lu put one thing forth: literacy is an essential tool for enriching any life. To be literate in the eyes of Mike Rose is to have the power to lift one's self above the shackles that illiterate life imposes. In Lu's opinion, literacy is the cornerstone (albeit a burdensome one at times) of a cultural perspective, without which, one would be limited to the views expressed by a particular interest or group. While both authors stress literacy as a tool needed for success in general, they both go about proving their point in very different ways.

In the reading by Rose, literacy is being experimented with by the Bay Area literacy program. It's participants are all older, and all have had personal opportunities to observe the pitfalls illiteracy poses in every day life. While these people have all grown up without the insight literacy fosters, Lu had been raised with a multicultural background from the start. It is in this distinction between the age and experience of its characters that the true meaning of literacy is found.

When given the tool early, even despite a tumultous context, Lu was presented the privelage of being allowed to decide for herself what her political views were. What she read may have had concequences for her socially, but inside her own mind, her literacy allowed her a greater choice personally. Inside the minds of the students of the Bay Area foundation, literacy was an elusive beast that had known as well as unknown implications and even sometimes scared the students with its complexity.

All in all, both texts are uplifting reads... Whether it's the musings of a young student or the triumphant victories of an older one, literacy empowers.