Deborah Brandt's 'Sponsors Of Literacy'

Literacy is more than just words. Literacy is a rhythmic melody that has been recited, altered and progressed in many forms over centuries. Deborah Brandt’s article “Sponsors of Literacy” offers an analytical approach of how an individual’s literacy is developed by different opportunities, tied with economical growth. The physiognomy of literacy is approached and strengthened by what Deborah calls “sponsors of literacy”. Sponsors are educated influential representatives in a specific domain who develop and teach individuals. Yet Brandt had came to a conclusion that some sponsors only enable support to benefit themselves in some form, mostly economically. Deborah elaborates on the various stratifications that cause access to sponsors by conducting interviews with several people with diverse backgrounds.involve women working in subordinate positions as secretaries, in print-rich settings where better educated male supervisors were teach- ing them to read and write in certain ways to perform Brandt organized her point of views by the problems of accessing literacy through sponsors, the expectancy of ascendence in literacy standards within time, and how literacy is
Inequality is a huge issue in society as minorities and the poor struggle to access sponsors. A case of a rich white individual interviewed by Brandt is Raymond Branch whose, “early literacy learning we are able to see behind the scenes of his majority-race membership, male gender, and high-end socioeconomic family profile”p.171 helped him access sponsors easily. Dora on the other hand (a Mexican-American) took it upon herself to learn Spanish by reading books and getting help online. Therefore Deborah’s comparison depicts to the reader different “privileges” each Dora and Raymond had. How different family backgrounds influence the access of sponsors and performance each person has for literacy and many