Response to Mona's "Defining Literacy, Defending Writing"

After reading Mona's post, "Defining Literacy, Defending Writing" I have to say that I have a more clear perspective on Lankshear and Ong's arguments regarding literacy, and how the attainment of literacy can foster an awareness for an individual to take action in rebuilding his or her life. Lankshear and Ong are not in absolute agreement about which model of literacy, the Autonomous Model or the Ideological Model, is legitimate, but their ideas continuously overlap. For example, as Mona stated in her argument, Lankshear believes that writing can help individuals, "greatly contribute to their respective societies, more fully realize their potentials as equal human beings, and break free of potentially oppressive power structures." On the other hand, even though Ong perceives writing as a "technology" he too believes that writing has a profound positive change on the individual using it.

I absolutely agree with Lankshear and Ong about the fact that writing can create positive changes. I also think that the positive changes that writing can create depend on the social environment in which the writing is being utilized. Either way, literacy does and always will have the ability to impact lives, maybe some cultures and communities more than others, but literacy will always be a piece of the human puzzle.