Bingler 1

Benjamin Bingler

Professor Hinnant English 1101 12 September, 2013 How my Social Upbringing Affects my Literacy

Back when I was young, my mom took me to my local library and signed me up for a summer reading program. While I didnt know this at the time, I would fall in love with reading and writing that summer all due to this program. Thanks to my familys ability to provide me with reading and writing opportunities, my childhood was filled with reading and writing experiences that made me the writer I am today. My reading, writing, and communication was affected due to my social upbringing and the opportunities I was given when I was a child. First and foremost, reading has always been a large part of my life. While my reading for fun habits have begun to taper off as I have gotten older, I used to be absolutely in love with books and reading in general. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the summer reading program that I participated in as a child threw me into the wonderful world of novels and stories. Stacked up against writing and other forms of communication, reading always seemed to prevail in winning my interest. There was a time in my life (in my elementary school years), where it was rare to find me without my nose in a book. I just absolutely could not get enough of it, whether it was novels, informative books, or even newspapers. While some of this could be linked to my curiosity, it would be crazy to deny the opportunities I was given some of the credit

Bingler 2

for my passion for reading. Without the social status of my family and parents, its possible I would have never actually been so into literature. For example, had I grown up in inner city charlotte with a family in poverty, I would have had nowhere near the amount of access and encouragement to pick up a book and read. Along with these programs where I was given incentive to read, I also had access to a public library that my parents would take me to whenever they could as well as a library in my school, stocked full of books. Another way that my familys social and financial status helped me was by my parents often buying and supplying me with new things to read, or things that would help me with reading. Those with a lower financial position might not have the extra money to spend on such things, which would influence the child to not be as interested in literature. Finally, due to my parents economic status, I grew up in a safe middle class neighborhood where I was surrounded by kids just like me. Because of this middle class suburb, I had the opportunity to go to schools that were full of great teachers, plenty of supplies, and other kids who were excited to learn. The schools I attended during my childhood is who I give most of the credit to for my reading literacy. I never had a passion for writing like I did for reading. For me, writing was always something that I was supposed to do, rather than something I was willing to do. Despite my usually negative attitude towards writing, my familys social situation still made sure that I was able to write when I needed to. Just like with reading, I was given the chance to write whenever I wanted. My parents always supplied me with paper and writing utensils, and encouraged me to write just like any good middleclass parents would. Again, their financial position allowed me to go to schools where my education was put first and I had all that was required to learn. In these prestigious schools, I was taught how to write, what to write about, and about different types of writings I could do. From the start, I dont think I gave writing a fair chance. Because I never

Bingler 3

really wrote for fun, or just wrote about stuff that I wanted to write about, I disliked writing only because I was being forced to do it. All the way from elementary school up to my last semester in high school, I was given assignments with specific instructions on what to write, how to write it, and how long I had until it must be turned in. Not even my financial and social status could help with this, I simply have always hated writing. Of course with anything involving school, there are always exceptions. There were a couple assignments that some of my favorite teachers gave me that I thoroughly enjoyed writing about. Surprisingly enough, some of these were papers involving research and analysis. I came to realize that for me to enjoy the writing, I needed to be interested in the topic. The schools I went to did a good job of teaching me grammar and syntax, which will help me for the rest of my life. However I dont think I will ever just like writing. Ever since I learned to speak, my parents have been getting on me about proper ways to talk. Like reading and writing, my parents played a large role in my attitude towards verbal communication. As many of my friends and people that are close to me know, I love to talk. With the exception of some slang here and there, and maybe some grammatical errors, I speak the English language well. Most of the thanks for this goes to my moms occupation. My mom is a speech pathologist for elementary school kids. This ultimately affected how I talk because whenever I made a mistake in my speech, she was there to annoyingly correct it. After years of this occurring, I developed communication skills that will suffice when talking to others who are literate. Also, my parents wanted me to be polite and proper when addressing certain people, to give off a good impression. I am grateful for this because of how much I have used it. Job interviews, speaking to elders, and talking to teachers all require being polite and proper, which my parents made sure to stress the importance of. This has not only given me an advantage over

Bingler 4

those who were not taught these social skills, but it also makes me feel better and more confident about myself knowing that I have the literacy to get places in life. My moms middle class job influenced me to develop my verbal communication past the point of being literate, which I am grateful for. There are many factors that influence, and have influenced, my literacy today. While all of these factors have shaped my reading, writing, and verbal literacy, the factor that most had a role in the development of my literacy has to be the Financial and Social Status of my family. Since I grew up in a good environment and had parents who were determined to give me a good education and a good future, I truly believe that my current level of literacy today can be attributed to my privileged childhood.