Elbow Reading Journal Brendan Long

Elbow, Peter. “Pg (359-365).” In Everyone Can Write: Essays toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

The article was about how certain dialects were thought of as inferior and were not able to learn how to write. Throughout history, more and more cultures were accepted and were taught how to write from a young age. We still face a lot of these problems in theses times but not as many. Kids who are never taught how to read or write are at a big disadvantage in our modern society and are almost guaranteed to fail. Thankfully, a majority of the world now has access to schooling and most people.

“To imply to children or adults … that it doesn’t matter how you talk or how you write is to ensure their ultimate failure” (“Silenced Dialogue” 292) pg.361

This shows that kids need to learn how to read and write properly or it will ensure their failure.

“No longer could the homogeneous student population of the pre-War years be assumed, as more and more young people from non-elite backgrounds came to fill the universities in search of access to the privileges of high socioeconomic rank. (Belin and Rudolf qtd. in Boyd 57-58)” pg. 360

This is showing how kids that came from less elite backgrounds started to fill universities after the Civil War.

 It applies to the issues of poverty in the United States today. Kids who are born into households with more wealth have access to more opportunities than families who are struggling. With more opportunities comes a higher chance to be successful.

What would the world be like if certain dialects were still thought of as inferior and were not given proper schooling?