Mainstream vs. Old Order Amish education
Are the values for a mainstream educated person and an Old Order Amish student the same? Do the mainstream culture and the people of the Trackton community hold the same expectations for their children when they complete school? From various readings we can answer this with a simple no, but we should ask ourselves "why is this?". One main reason is because in different social cultures, literacy's value is defined by the culture's expectation of its people. We will now explore these three culture types and give examples of literacy's value within the cultures. The goal of the mainstream education system is to prepare its students for post secondary education. This type of education starts with the basic reading and comprehension skills learned in elementary school. Starting with these skills gives the children a solid base to build the grammar learned in middle school and on into high school. Middle school gives the children basic grammar understandings such as nouns, verbs, proper sentence structure, and basic composition assignments. Middle school also takes reading to the next level by increasing the difficulty of the reading assignments. Finally high school is the last step for the students to obtain the literacy skil
Literacy across all cultures carries with it the same generic meaning, the ability to read and write. But the more specific meaning varies from culture to culture. Is either of these examples' values or definition of literacy more correct than the others? This question cannot be answered yes or no. You would have to look at the context of which the definition is being used to determine whether or no it is appropriate. Writing in Trackton is reserved mainly for the women of the community and the mayor. Men in Trackton usually only write as much as to sign paychecks or fill out official forms. Literacy in this community seems like it is merely a survival technique more so than an education standard. This is what the community accepts therefore the children "read to learn" (303) as much as they need to get by in everyday life. The people of Trackton value this standard of literacy. The final example of culturally valued literacy is that of the Old Order Amish. The author Fishman found that the Amish start to become literate at a very young age, though more so through daily life and experiences than by sitting down and trying to become literate. She gives examples such as evenings of simple word games, reading and repeating of Bible verses, singing songs from memorization rather than reading words from a song book, and writing letters, not from scratch, but from copying
Some common words found in the essay are:
Canterbury Tales, , Writing Trackton, Fishman Children, Reading Trackton, people trackton, mainstream education, middle school, people trackton community, mainstream education system, community hold, literacy's value, trackton community, education system, below average, read write, mainstream educated,
Approximate Word count = 933
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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