Lazy litercy Essays - Knowledge, Literacy, Reading, Writing

Respectfully Lazy Literature I must start off by saying that my current attitude towards my own personal literacy would have to be that of a lazy yet respectful student of literacy. This is just my present attitude and one of many feelings I have had towards reading and writing. Presently my attitude is greatly influenced by the American education system, I say this because I am a full time student and have little time to read or write about my personal interests. With that said my appreciation comes from an eagerness to learn. When I think about my past and all of my different feelings towards literacy it's hard not to start at the beginning. So where did my feelings of reading and writing all start. When I was growing up it was common for children to start reading and writing at around the age of three to five starting kindergarten around the age of six most children were expected to know the basics of reading and writing by then. This was around the time that my parents were going through a nasty divorce. Our members staying with my grandparents having grandma reading a story about King Midas who everything he touched turned to gold. With my parents going through such a divorce there wasn't much time for my home education as they both had full - time jobs. So starting kindergarten I was already behind the other children. I remembered in kindergarten when the classroom to do their reading and writing I would leave the class for smaller classroom down the hall with three or four of the other children for a special reading class. I would continue in these reading classes until the third grade. I believe my reading and writing was always a bit slower than the other children. Having always been behind my peers in school, I struggled to get by until I turned sixteen that would be my last day of the public education system. Still living at home my parents gave me an ultimatum to go to work full - time and get my GED or go back to high school. I knew how hard it was for me in high school so I chose to go to work and get my GED. Being only sixteen I lied about my age and took a construction job. Not having a clue about the real world and just being out of high school it was amazing how ignorant and how intelligent one person could be. Some of the old men that would teach me the trade came from the same background as me, a local Midwest small - town boy, only they had done this three or four decades before me. These old men had grammar and vocabulary that only encompassed their work. Working with and learning from these old men it was clear how important an education was. So here we are ten or fifteen years later and I'm finally getting that education. Growing up over the years surrounded by family who was always reading, writing and drawing. I always remember my grandfather having a Louis Lamour novel and a stack of National Geographic magazines. While my stepfather always had books about mountain men and the Civil War. While mom and grandma were always swapping romance or mystery novels. After my time in high school I started to enjoy reading Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Tom Clancy just to name a few. To this day I do still enjoy a good novel, but mostly its magazine or newspaper articles, not to mention the text for school. Overall my opinion of reading and writing is that I only like to do it when I want to or when it interests me. Too bad this is not the way life is. Most often on a daily basis all of my communication is done with slang, however my poor spelling and horrible grammar is completely acceptable in the world of text messaging. I chose to go back to school because my slang is not a proper language understood by all. This is where my appreciation for literacy comes in needing and wanting to be able to communicate is essential in conveying a message