Who is responsible for the development of Literacy?
If we assume that a majority of all individuals understand the definition of Literacy to be the ability to read and write, then we can begin to understand where the following assumption stems from; the responsibility of developing these skills rests predominantly with English and Literature teachers. Most English teachers I have met across Australia will attest to this assumption, while rolling their eyes or huffing with discontent. And rightly so. If the literacy of an entire class, school, town, city, state, and even nation depended on the very small percentage of people who teach English then we’d all be in the metaphorical creek without paddles (unable to articulate what a paddle is or why we need it to those on dry land watching us drown). Similarly, this group should not be scapegoated when poor literacy is discovered in a school, town, state, or nation. If you’ve never come across the African proverb "it takes a village to raise a child” then I hope you scan back and rer