Unit 1

College essay:

I lost but at the same time, I won. As I entered this fully packed stadium through one of the many doors, with a lanyard around my neck and a pass that said athlete, I was immediately struck with nervousness. I looked around me and saw mass hysteria, cheering, screaming, and lots of excitement. Very shortly, I would be running in front of thousands of people. 

After countless hours of training and lots of hard work junior year, it all came to fruition. All of my hard work and dedication brought me to the NYS indoor track and field championship. This moment was surreal. I’d always dreamed of being able to go to something like this but I’d never expected it to happen. Leading up to this event, I felt confident in myself to place at least in the top 6 and maybe in the top 4. That was my goal. I wasn’t arrogant; I was just confident. 

The time came for me to finally run. After the long drive down to Staten Island, what was once a dream, was becoming reality. I headed down to a communal warm-up area to find that it was swarmed with athletes. As I tried my best to warm up among this huge crowd, a few minutes in I'm told I am about to run. This is when I became overwhelmingly nervous and almost began to break down, for a couple of reasons. The first reason being, I was moments away from running in front of thousands of people, and secondly, because I wasn't able to warm up or prepare myself. I start out onto the track as I'm greeted by this massive crowd cheering for the athletes that are currently running. As the race before me finishes, I begin to line up. Now, this once intense crowd goes from cheering and screaming to dead silent. I hear the word, "Set" followed by an ear-piercing gunshot and twenty-three seconds later, I’m done. What I thought I would see was my name, followed by my school, next to place number 4. In actuality, it was down at number 11.

At first, I was very disappointed. I was upset at myself for not doing as well as I thought that I should’ve. March 7th, 2020, I learned something very valuable. I was wrong from the beginning. I told myself that I would probably finish in the top 4 and when I didn’t, I was devastated. I wasn’t proud of myself for how hard I worked and for how much time and effort I put in. The initial dream was just to be able to run at states, not to place in the top 4. I was too worried about what was considered winning in my mind to even realize what I accomplished. That day, I learned to be proud of myself for my hard work. I gave that race my absolute best. Maybe the 11th place was the best I could do. The point of the matter is that the whole time, it didn’t matter what I placed. What mattered was that I acknowledged my hard work and that I was proud of the results I produced because in the end that was the best I could do. 

 This lesson goes so much further than just running. I now know to be proud of my accomplishments even if it doesn’t mean that I am number one. I know how much effort and time I put into things, whether it is running or school,  I am proud of myself for my dedication and persistence. Even if I’m not the best. Though I did not win my race, I won the knowledge of a very valuable lesson I will carry with me for the next four years and the rest of my life.

FreeWrites:

June Jordan’s piece reintroduced the idea of what it means to be littertate. She told us how Black English in America should be just as accepted as White Standard English. It doesn’t matter how something sounds, the ideas behind it are the same. Black English has history and it should be accepted like White Standard English because in the end they both are just a method of communicating. June Jordan’s piece connected very well with, “What is Literacy?”. The ideas in both of the texts come together to say that being literate isn’t how well you can write in “perfect” english, it is about being able to effectively communicate your ideas and both Black and White Standard English do that. June Jordan's writing also connected with Jaylene Clark Owens, “My Voice. My Choice”. Jordan talks about how they had to choose between Black and White Standard English to get their ideas across to the public. Jordan and Jaylene Clark Owens say that you shouldn’t have to pick between the two. Society should look at them as the same. In the United States, White Standard English dominates the country. We as a nation shouldn’t judge people for how they speak. We should accept all languages as equal. Even people who think they speak perfect english do not, so nobody has the right to judge how somebody else speaks.   

Imaginative Writing:

At a coffee shop in NYC, three composers, June Jordan, Jaylen Clark Owens, and Jamila Lyiscott, sit with their drinks and begin to converse about societal issues with language and voice. 

Jordan: “White standards control our official and popular judgments of verbal proficiency and correct, or incorrect, language skills, including speech.” (pg.89)

Jordan: White Standard English is controlling the language in the United States, different styles of speaking are not being accepted in today’s society. 

Owens: Exactly! I find it very difficult to speak my language. When I speak, “I don’t even realize that I am trying to hold the real me down.”(00:36) I always find myself holding back my tounge when I want people to take me seriously. I feel like it is society’s choice not my own.       

Lyiscott: I agree. When I am with different people I have and use different voices, when I should be able to use just one. That is why, “I have decided to treat all three of my languages as equals because I’m articulate.” (01:15)

Owens: You know what, ”Maybe I won’t go full Harlem bird, but I'll let my voice fly.”(03:21)  

Hopkins: While I have never experienced this, I agree that you should speak your voice and let people know the real you. 

Jordan: I wish society would accept all voices and learn to cross linguistic boundaries. Sadly my class had to experience how society shuts down everything but White Standard English. 

Hopkins: Hopefully one day society can accept all types of languages and allow every voice to be heard.

As they continue to talk, they all agree that there is a major problem with how White Standard English controls America. They share their stories and experiences they have had and enjoy some delicious coffee in The Big Apple. 

Unit One Project:

It is time to change

The idea of literacy and what it means to be literate is not a common definition for all. There is an overwhelming amount of people who have a very closed view of what literacy is. During the start of the semester, like many others,  I was narrow minded to what it meant to be literate. I felt that to be literate one must be able to read and write in White Standard English. Now at the time I didn’t even know what White Standard English was, I just saw it as “perfect” English. Thankfully for many great composers, I was correctly informed on what it means to be literate. It doesn’t take much to learn the correct definition and I feel that society needs to put more effort into accepting all forms of literacy, language, and voice. 

“What is Literacy?” written by Dan Melzer stresses the importance of how being literate is way more than just being able to read and write. “Because of the increasing ethnic diversity of America in the variety of global Englishes being used around the world, a literate person needs to know how to cross linguistic boundaries and how to respect language and cultural diversity” (Melzer 3). This quote is very powerful. One of the main problems in American culture today is that we judge people when they are not speaking in “perfect” White Standard English. People look down upon other languages and other forms of English. I used to fall under that category of people. Reading this article alone helped me to see what literacy actually is about. It isn’t about how well you can speak in White Standard English, it is about being able to communicate your ideas effectively in multiple ways. Literacy is also about understanding different cultures and different ideas. Eugene Provenzo in his book, Critical Literacy, says “Being literate means having knowledge of complexity and diversity” (Melzer 3). This is a big part that America, and the rest of the world misses. There is a large lack of knowledge on different cultures and societies around the world. This is why people make assumptions about people based on what they think or what they may have heard. This is the danger of a single story. Chimamanda Adichie speaks to us on this matter. She tells us her experiences with single stories. Like most of us from childhood she was taught from one perspective. In her case it was her only reading British books and only getting that perspective of literature. For myself, It was growing up in not the most culture diverse area. I was taught White Standard English and wasn’t exposed to other cultures. This is what led to my lack of knowledge on literacy and culture for so long. I know that I wasn’t the only one brought up that way, but I now know the consequences of a single story and making assumptions, “It robs people of dignity, it makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult, and it emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.” (Adichi 13:36). It is very important that as a society we start to learn more about everyone. I know that this isn’t easy but a little goes a long way and if we can all stop making assumptions it will help greatly. “When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.” (Adichi 18:09)

Voice and literacy go hand and hand. Oftentimes when we hear people from different cultures speaking in a different style of English, we view it as wrong or inferior. I was guilty of doing what a large part of America is still doing. I used to look down on different languages and voices. I then realized that even I don’t speak perfect English. I learned there is no perfect English. We don’t all speak grammatically correct. We speak to get our ideas out and to communicate with others. So who gets to draw the line of what is acceptable in society? The answer is nobody. All styles of English need to be accepted in America. We need to stop looking down on different cultures for speaking English in their way because all English is the same and does the same thing.

After just reading a couple pieces that these composers wrote my whole idea of what it means to be literate changed drastically. Looking back on what I used to think about being literate is sad. It is sad because I know that there are so many uneducated and narrow minded people on the topic of literacy who think just as I did. It isn’t hard at all to learn about literacy. If society could just be more open minded and try to learn just a little bit about different cultures, then we would all be better off. It is time to change America’s narrow mind and start to be more accepting of everyone’s literacy, language, and voice.