“any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy”

1)Sponsors help the sponsored gain knowledge through different literary moments. While this benefits the sponsored, it also helps progress the sponsor also. For example, whenever i would ask for help with my biology class from my neighbor in my dorm, she would not mind explaining the information because it also helped her and understand it better. In a different light Brandt describes the sponsor to be “richer, more knowledgeable, and more entrenched than the sponsored.” (556) This can be seen as a person who gains profit for training their apprentice, because they are training them to work for them.

 

 

5) In Alexander article, he describes that a trend was found that involved getting great grades in order to make more money as they get older and describes it as ” romanticized power of education”.(609) If this were to be connected to Brandt’s ideas, does a student growing up gain this way of thinking from their sponsors? This could show how a sponsor has that big of an impact of someone, that it causes them to pursue that type of lifestyle.

 

2) Brandt describes the power of reading and writing throughout his article. then why do so many have trouble with the value that it holds. I think it is because of how much time and effort it takes to become proficient at reading and writing.  I think that there is delay in gratification that may shy people away, due to it being nitty gritty details that need to be perfected. This also may have to do with people believing that these things can cause upward mobility. Because of this i believe that this is why it is hard for most people to get into working on their reading or wrtiting.