What Does it Mean to Be Literate

Daniel Russell:

I don't mean to be presumptuous, but maybe the question is better framed like this: "How illiterate are you?"

Technically, to be literate means you can simply read and write (that is, code and decode) in the representation system of your social group. But even that simple definition assumes that there is a shared coding scheme. If you're a kid in the US in the early 21st century, that's probably English; but it could also just as well be Spanish or Chinese.

But it also has the sense of having knowledge or being competent in a specific area. You can say, "he's literate about wine," "literate about netsuke," or "literate about the Old Testament." A quick search reveals a whole host of literacies that are common these days: media literacy, information literacy, financial, bible, multicultural, interactive, news, environmental... on and on.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 8, 2012 1:57 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas