[Xmca-l] Re: Winn's Exploring the Literate Trajectories of Youth across Time and Space

[Annalisa Aguilar]

Hi PETER! 

 ( Did I get that right *this* time??? :D )

I think it's really an interesting equation you've set up here to bridge the ideal as defined by Ilyenkov, with "ideals" of literacy as illustrated in Winn's paper. That makes a lot of sense. [Applause in the theater]

That is why I was wondering if the activity spent outside the classroom doing poetry slams at the bookstore would be like learning a new language, in that there are new vocabularies, and new constructs of usage, their own spontaneous literacies, that the students live that presence in their lives, as a place/space of joy and liberation. I pose the question, could this actually create/construct a new pathway into dealing with a different ideal of literacy in the school which is not inclusive to them? 

Said differently, does poetry slamming create a dialectical tension with in-school literacies within the student, that emerge through living it, that the in-school literacy is just like a different language rather than a framework that excludes them?

I may not be explaining that very well, and I don't mean to represent I want to legitimize literacies that dismiss socioeconomic realities of students. At the same time, when I think of myself as a native English speaker, I can't reject the gender assignments in Spanish just because I might find it repressive, let's say. It is only because I speak English as a native speaker that I can make that claim, otherwise it would be invisible to me, and I may not think anything about it at all.

Kind regards,

Annalisa