Literacy: An Indispensable and Valuable Asset
In a society increasingly based on the rapid transmission of information, literacy becomes an indispensable and valuable asset. However, literacy was an equally important tool before the information age and even before the Industrial Revolution. Frederick Douglass, in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, describes how literacy transformed his relationship to himself and to his slave masters, enabling him to become a powerful spokesperson for abolition. Thus, literacy can be a tool for social and political change. Douglass does not note the relevance of literacy for economic success, for in the nineteenth century making a living was not as dependent on literacy skills as it might be today. A report published by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry entitled "The Importance of Literacy and Numeracy Skills" champions the role of literacy in boosting business and national economies. The report reveals the role of literacy in the information age: as an asset not only meaningful for the individual but also for economic growth and prosperity. Different perspectives on the significance of literacy, outlined by Douglass in the mid-nineteenth century and by an Australian organization in the early twenty-f
Douglass came to understand why: by restricting a slave's ability to read and write, masters could maintain control and order. However, because of the impact of personal narrative, and his ability to link literacy with freedom, Douglass' text presents a more poignant and meaningful argument. Cut off from an essential stream of information, an illiterate person remains a slave "for life," as Douglass suggests (p. Douglass in fact used his newfound literacy skills toward his own emancipation and toward the emancipation of his brethren, because as soon as he learned how to read Douglass encountered abolitionist texts that opened his eyes to the origins and brutality of the institution of slavery. So powerful was Douglass' literacy education that the pain of self-awareness led him to contemplate suicide (p. irst century, nevertheless clarify the value of literacy in furthering personal, social, political, and economic goals. Literacy bestows on the individual a means of communicating with others, of sharing ideas and debating essential points in the hopes of changing minds and hearts. Slaves were not permitted to learn literacy skills as a rule, because slave owners knew that the power to read and write would quickly translate into the political power to organize resistance movements. When slaves began to read, they learned that they were not alone in their suffering and that there were means by which to extricate themselves from their oppressive and violent conditions. For Douglass and other slaves like him, however, literacy was a gift and a means of salvation. Literacy was held out as a means of social control and still is. The Australian Chamber of Commerce could not begin to address such deep emotional issues, because the report is clinical and formal. " Learning to read also exposed Douglass to abolitionist philosophies, transforming his consciousness against subservience and toward liberation. Frederick Douglass "had no regular teacher" to help him read and write (p.
Common topics in this essay:
Chamber Commerce,
Frederick Douglass,
Skills Australian,
Numeracy Skills,
Orator Learning,
,
literacy skills,
australian chamber commerce,
australian chamber,
Australian Chamber,
chamber commerce,
read write,
frederick douglass,
importance literacy,
twenty-first century,
social political,
learning read,
Commerce Industry,
Literacy Numeracy,
Importance Literacy,
importance literacy numeracy,
literacy numeracy skills,
change douglass,
tool social political,
|
Acceptance Essays
