Literacy and the Literacy Myth from Plato to Freire

“Literacy seemed to many people to be what distinguishes one kind of person from another kind of person.”

This quote made me think about Korea before Hangul was created. At that time, only the ‘yangban’, the elite, could read and write Chinese. They were the ruling class. The peasant class was illiterate because they were busy working but instead it seems as though they didn’t have access. Eventually Hangul was created that was simple to learn and after some time, most everyone was literate. But this still did not break down the social hierarchy. It only allowed some to gain wealth as they utilized their new literacy to do business, creating a wealthy merchant class but still beneath the ‘yangban’ class. At least though, it gave some people hope when they had none before.

On another note, it is true text can be read on many levels and we have to find the "hidden meaning" behind the words. Recently this issue has come up with the interpretation of the United States 14^th Amendment which gives citizenship to anyone born in America. This doesn’t affect Koreans too much except for mothers going on ‘tourism birth’ trips. However, it does affect millions of Hispanics and others who were born in America to illegal immigrants. The group wanting to repeal the 14^th Amendment, or make changes to it, suggest that the original purpose of the amendment has been misinterpreted. But what is the real purpose?  It didn’t seem like a big problem for over 100 years so why now?

I think, the problem is that American government and state governments are having budget problems and they think one way to solve that problem is to reduce the number of people that need their services. Not just illegal immigrants are being targeted to solve budget problems but the elderly too as they face Medicaid and Medicare cuts.

I think the US government should focus on reducing the $14,000,000,000,000 debt and give this money to the states instead of targeting minority groups and the elderly.