Rewriting the World: Literacy, Inequality, and the Brain

• Published in: The New England Reading Association journal 2013-07, Vol.49 (1), p.22
• Main Author: Darder, Antonia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult Literacy; African Americans; Alaska Natives; Attention Deficit Disorders; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Beliefs; Brain; Community Relations; Core curriculum; Death; Developed Nations; Education; Educational Practices; Equal Education; Freire, Paulo (1921-1997); Functional Literacy; Genocide; Governance; Grade 9; Hawaiians; Hispanic American Students; Ideology; Indigenous Populations; Industrialized nations; Language; Language Minorities; Learning; Linguistics; Literacy; Literacy Education; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority Group Students; Minority Groups; Multicultural Education; Public schools; Society; Teachers
• ISSN: 0028-4882

According to the Alliance for Excellent Education (2006), only 57% of Latino students, 53% of African American students, and 49% of American Indian and Alaska Native students entering ninth grade will earn a high school diploma. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (2000), a leading international language-rights advocate, argues in her book, Linguistic Genocide or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights, that the majority of language communities over the last hundred years have become victims of linguistic genocide-where the language is killed rather than the people. [...]she associates this form of genocide with a desire to destroy potential competition for political and economic power, in order to eliminate claims to national rights among indigenous and language minority populations.