Word for the Day: Empowerment

Empowerment: 1) To give someone authority or power to do something. 2) Enabling someone to do something. 3) To Make someone stronger and more confident, esp. in controlling their life and claiming their rights. (*Definitions taken from Apple Dictionary)

When I think of literacy, the first word that comes to my mind is empowerment. Literacy empowers people. It empowers them to do all kinds of positive things like communicate with others, teach themselves, learn from other people, defend themselves, know when to defend themselves, and help others defend themselves. It can also empower people to do negative things too, like take advantage of people. Literacy helps people do simple day-to-day things also, like buy groceries, pump gas, and drive. If a person cannot read, or doesn't speak the same language as their surrounding society, then even these simple things become extremely difficult.

The catch to literacy is that it is not something that you can achieve overnight, or in one classroom, or with one teacher. We as humans, in a communicative and social world, must constantly refine and redefine our literacy capabilities and skills. What often goes overlooked is the fact that someone can be extremely literate in one setting, and be extremely illiterate in another. For example, if you drop an Ivy League Doctoral Student in the middle of a West Oakland ghetto, chances are he or she will not have the cultural literacy to know how to act, or interact. In his or her professional realm, they are considered highly literate, but in the middle of the ghetto, they become illiterate really fast.

Unfortunately all too often, it is the people who lack formal education that are viewed as illiterate. This thought is not accurate by any means though, and what needs to be discussed more, is that everyone has the ability to read, they just read through different mediums. Some read through words, others through actions, some read visually and other read auditorially. The languages people use to interpret what they are reading vary as well. Some people read the world in Spanish, some in English, some in ghetto slang, some in professional yuppie. The list could go on indefinitely.

The only way to achieve true literacy is to learn how to read and communicate with all types of people, in all different settings, all around the world. This is an impossible task due to the size and complexity of our world, but I believe it would be in everybody's best interest to constantly work toward this abstract goal. The more we can all move between spaces in a competent and understanding way, the more empowered we will become in ensuring that our needs, and the needs of those around us will be met.

*Image taken from http://www.robinhardy.net/images/hands_empowerment_circle.jpg