"Eye write"- my literacy journey..

The way I understand literacy and the way I've become literate stemmed from my home life. I'd never really thought about my journey to literacy until we discussed it in English 482, and it opened my eyes to how I got to where I am today--literacy-wise. I grew up in a house filled with love. My parents cared so deeply about the well-being of my sister and me, and still do. They believed in the power of higher education and pushed from day one for us to achieve the greatest gift of knowledge. I never had cable as a child, and the only television shows I remember watching were educational and taught me about literacy. Sesame Street and Reading Rainbow made learning entertaining. But more than I remember television shows, I remember my childhood home being scattered with books. Golden Books, Doctor Seuss, Berenstain Bears--you name it. And the one book that I feel helped develop my literacy skills from the start was "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown. I read that book, and had it read to me so many times, I had each page memorized. When my mom figured out that I was "reading" from memory, she would take the book away and give me a new one.
From my home life, I gained a sincere appreciation and interest in literacy. When I attended school, I felt I was beyond what the teacher was teaching because I could just recall everything I'd learned from my mom. Don't get me wrong; I gained a sincere relationship with my elementary school teachers and to this day I can remember all of their names. But their lectures, assignments, and exercises never had the same effect on me that my mother's reassuring tone and unconditional care for my well-being did. I knew from the start that these educators cared for us, the students, but never the way a mother cared for her child.
In terms of Yagelski vs. Gee, I feel the definition of literacy that most relates to my literacy journey would be Yagelski's. He focuses on the idea that discourse is ever-changing, and achieving literacy is a constant. He believed in the construction of self through discourse which I feel affected me in that my literacy narrative outlined the idea of growing with literacy. Literacy is not a concept you learn and move on with; it's not like learning Pythagorean's Theorem. As a graduating senior, I feel my literacy journey is far from over.