What Is Literacy

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I Have This Nagging Feeling We Missed Something
In recent weeks all of us have been introduced to the essay “What is Literacy” written by Linguist James Paul Gee in 1987. Within this document we learn Gee is going to employ his learned linguistic skills to provide a ‘useful’ definition for the word literacy. Prior to providing us this insight, however, Gee must educate the reader on various definitions, ideas and numerous theories in an effort to provide support for his conclusions and ultimately woo the reader into believing the postulations he makes. Initially this is all fine and well, as Gee, does an admirable job of laying out these foundations, up and until he begins to explain how an individual obtains knowledge. It is here Gee’s …show more content…
from this point on). What is I.T. you ask? I.T., put simply, is information that you have obtained that has been passed on to you through DNA that has been passed on to you from someone in your family history because of a traumatic experience of one kind or another. Do you have a fear of deep water for no good reason? I.T. could offer an explanation for your irrational fear as the passed down traumatic memory of your great-great grandfather, who nearly drown as a child and is even now still warning you, genetically, of the dangers of deep water. Have you ever stopped to question why you cannot tolerate being in a crowded elevator? Maybe you had an ancestor whose father died in a tragic coal mine collapse and she is constantly reminding you that confined spaces can equate to death?. I.T. is no longer mere speculation as recent studies have proven it as in a Emory University study showed that animals such as mice have the ability to pass on emotions such as fear to their offspring without the offspring ever having known the cause of the fear themselves (Kase). Now that we know this genetic passing on of information is valid, it can be used as a possible tool in determining and diagnosing the source of social disorders in individuals that normally would …show more content…
Apparently I am not alone in my belief as even the noted physicist Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying “The only real valuable thing is intuition (Valdez). The American Heritage College Dictionary defines the word intuition as ‘The act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; immediate cognition…’ and during the course of my research I found numerous articles about the many assorted benefits once can gain if they will but listen to that little voice. Annie Murphy Paul, who is a regular contributor to Time, CNN, Forbes and many others, recently wrote an article entitled “The Science of Intuition: An Eye-Opening Guide to your Sixth Sense”. Within the article Paul provides a lengthy list of benefits, backed up by a plethora of cited research, that an individual can take full advantage of provided they are willing to listen to that little voice often called intuition. One of the more remarkable studies Paul cites is about individuals who have suffered a head injury and as a result have gone blind even though there is no physical damage to their eyes. When tested however, these people are still able to complete an obstacle course or read the emotions on a person’s face. This phenomenon is known as "blindsight" and Paul explains that humans actually have two tracks of vision, the conscious track and the intuitive track
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