Going Public Lit & Hist Blog Assignment #1

Could not figure out how to add a photo here my apologies. My name is Tyler Armstrong. I  am a junior here at New Jersey City University majoring in Fire Science. I  studied Economics for 2 years at Rowan University before transferring here last semester. I  went to Holy Spirit High School in Absecon, NJ. I grew up and currently live in South Jersey in Egg Harbor Township (EHT), NJ which is about 15 minutes from Ocean City. I am active duty military at the 177th Fighter Wing in EHT. I am a volunteer firefighter for the Cardiff Volunteer Fire Company in EHT. I played baseball and street hockey my whole life growing up and I still play in men's leagues for both baseball in the summer and street hockey right now in the winter. I took this class as a mandatory General Education class but I am interested in learning the roots of literacy and the origin of literacy and how/when/where it all came about. I am excited to learn with you and get to know everyone in the class. 

Growing up literacy was presented to me in the same way it was to most of us. From the first words we speak to the first words we are able to hand write I was taught by my parents and teachers/day care aids. I did Pre-K twice and by the end of my second year in Pre-K the teachers had considered me to be over achieving due to having a full 2 years under my belt. I have been to catholic school my whole life from Pre-K through high school. What does this mean towards literacy? I was taught and am fully efficient in writing in cursive. Cursive handwriting was started in first grade and was mandatory all through 8th grade. Freshman year of high school it was mandatory as well, then the last 3 years were optional. Writing in cursive was influential to me because it was something that was completely foreign to my friends who went through public school their whole life. It was extremely interesting to see public school students go to my high school and their freshman year they had to learn cursive. 

Going back to middle school the annual Scholastic Book Fair was extremely influential to not only myself but it was evident it was influential on all of us who participated in the book fair. No matter if you were really into reading or not (which I was not, am still not) it was something that inspired/challenged you to read whatever book(s) you purchased. Since we were granted money from our parents to buy these books, my parents had a strict rule on the books that I came home with. If I did not at least make a good attempt to read the book they would take away my video games or other things I did actually enjoy. Literacy practices I partook in were much like a lot of little kids practice. Every night before bed when I was really young my parents would read me a bedtime story. They would read one page, I would read the other, etc. In school a good practice was taking turns reading around the class. It not only gave you an opportunity to read, but it also forced you to pay attention to the reading because if you got called on to read and did not know where we were in the text you would get in trouble. 

Some significant events involving different people and places include public speaking events, fire department/military events. I have been lucky enough to attend some public speaking events when I was at Rowan. Former Eagles legend Brian Dawkins visited Rowan and spoke to us and I was able to attend and listen to him speak on different topics and gave us a chance to ask questions and speak with him. Being in the fire department and military has also given me ways to enhance my literacy. Speaking to children and adults about my experiences has been a good way to publicly speak and get comfortable with speaking about real world adult events. Traveling the world with the military and meeting new people and learning about the different ways they practice literacy has been influential. Both my job in the military and certain tasks in the fire department require you to be literate. I am grateful for my learning experiences to now be literate at an above average level.