Sponsors of Literacy

Deborah Brandt’s article “Sponsors of Literacy “is written to show the importance of literacy sponsors in people’s lives. Throughout the reading, I found many interesting facts about sponsors through Brandt’s research. Brandt stated a literacy sponsor is “any agent, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy and gain advantage by it in some way”. Sponsors, as I think of them, are people or companies that either help or stop people from becoming literate. In my life, my parents and my schools have been my sponsors. From an early age, my parents would read to me so I would get comfortable with it. Being exposed to reading and writing at a young age had a profound effect on my English skills.

Malcolm X and Sherman Alexi both had literary sponsors throughout their lives. For Malcolm, prison became a sponsor of literacy. He learned to read and write from a dictionary to keep himself busy and out of trouble. Mr. Elijah Muhammad could also be viewed as a sponsor for Malcolm X. During their multiple communications by mail, Muhammad influenced Malcolm enough to make him want to study literacy more in depth. Sherman Alexi’s sponsor of literacy was his dad. He owned many books and gave Sherman the love of literacy that he holds today.

I believe race and class can also have a major impact on literacy. Branch, being the majority race, found it easier to find multiple sponsors than Lopez. She had to work her way towards literacy while Branch found it easy. Being white, he was part of the upper class and was constantly surrounded by literate people. Lopez was in the opposite seeming situation, but still managed to find sponsors. This proves that while race and class may affect your ability to get sponsors, it cannot stop someone who has the will to find one.