Protean Shapes in Literacy Events - Sean

In Shirley Brice Heath's "Protean Shapes in Literacy Events" we are introduced the the town of Trackton, and its shifting nature of oral and literate traditions. Heath starts out by explaining the more"traditional" idea that literacy is learned and used primarily as a tool to convey complex ideas, and that the lack of being able to use this tool effectively is what gives individuals and societies the negative stigma of being "illiterate" or "non-literate." This continues on into the discussion of Trackton and their oral traditions.

The first thing heath really gets into is that the discourse in Trackton is more speech based and much less writing based. Any writing that is created is used to simply carry a message, and the message is then discussed at length verbally. Even interviews are conducted verbally from a written form, and the answers are transcribed as they are dictated. This is a prime example of the oral tradition of literacy rather than its use as a more formal or "educational" tool.

This literacy is used as a social tool to convey and teach. Rather than asking direct questions to their children, Trackton parents ask more indirect questions, and challenge their children to explain themselves using language, rather than focussing on teaching them specific words like more "traditional" parents. What's amazing is how this method of raising children can have eyebrow raising moments of seemingly sophisticated language control as demonstrated with Lem's poem about the church bell.

That being said, I think that Heath is trying to show the reader that these people are merely different than what most people might consider "normal," but that they are in no way "illiterate." They are terribly creative, as evidenced both by Lem's poem, and the schoolteacher's prayer. They can interact very proficiently within their own community, and make use of their language, and that, Heath argues, makes them literate.