Family Values

So, at first when i started reading Joe's family values i was extremely confused and easily lost because, it just felt like he was recounting his family history and really had no real point to his writing. i felt like this was the case all the way to about, page 11. i could respect that his family was poor and that his grandfather had immigrated to this country when he was so poor in his other country, and i could respect that his grandfather had worked for everything he had however, i didn't feel at all like i could relate. despite the fact that my grandfather had immigrated here from ireland and was so poor that he had to join the army just to survive, in my family we just never really talked about it so, i couldn't exactly relate.

When he got to page 11, joe started discussing all different types of literacy and since this is something we so often talk about in class, it caught my interest. he is absolutely right about there being many many different literacy's and how not all of them are appreciated or even, given a place in mainstream american culture; i found that statement to be pretty powerful. i also liked his statement on how all students are just blindly sucked into the corporate system of either being a boss, or having a boss. its not fair how your only options that you have if you want to make a living in the world are to either tell lots of people what to do or, be told what to do by lots of people. both me and my sister have found ourselves frustrated through our collage experiences because we do not want to get sucked into this system but realize that it is inevitable.

Joe also mentions how modern technology has had a significant impact on his life. although i can heavily relate to this, i prefer not to because it is for much different reasons. i never met or seriously considered any person that i had come in contact with online because i believe that human relationships should be much more personal that that however, the internet and modern technology in general are both wonderful ways of staying in touch with people who you already care about but are far away from. life is made much simpler by having so much of the world's knowledge available to you with the click of a button but, i dont think its right for people to rely so heavily on modern technology that they are helpless with out it. And it is especially sad when people hide behind computers so for so long that they inevitably become anti social in person.

A new point of view on Family Values

When I began reading Joe Amato's Family Values, it was exactly what I had expected. What I was expecting was another story of the struggles of a working class American, whose family immigrated from another country, and how he's the only one in his family who broke through their struggles and made something more of himself. And indeed, this is what his essay was about. This type of literature does not peak my interest because I just can't relate. I feel that Joe talked way too much about his family, and it was out of context to the other material of the essay. I understand that your family and your heritage influences how you speak, write, and think, but I just don't need to know about every detail of his aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, cousins, etc. Because of all the uninteresting detail he shared about his family, I veered off from the piece often simply out of boredom. Everybody has a life story, but what made him think that his was so interesting?

However, as I read over the reading again, I realized that all the reasons for his, what I thought, useless details, actually tied into the whole essay. He explains the fact that our backgrounds and upbringings can tie into how we develop educationally. After reading again, I liked the details that he included, and I actually did relate to some of the things he was saying. I realized that some families, my family included, don’t have certain opportunities and resources to get a “top of the line” education. After realizing this, I have changed my point of view and I am inspired by Amato’s telling of his family and their influences on him educationally.

Amato’s point of technology influencing our generation caught my attention immediately. I agree with him completely. The way we learn, research, communicate, and even meet people has definitely changed, and is changing day by day. One example that I thought of was Sparknotes.com. I feel this site has completely changed the effort and interest in literature for all students. I saw a lot of this in high school when we were reading a book in class. The teacher would assign various chapters to read, and most of my friends and peers (not me!) didn’t read the chapters! They would just go on spark notes and print out the information that only applied to the class. They may be getting little bits of information to help them pass a test, but really they are not getting a full look and appreciation of a book. Whereas when my mother was young, they had no other option but to read and comprehend an entire book, without the help of a silly website.

With that being said, it is not just social networking sites that are changing just the way we interact with people. The internet and technology in general is completely changing our appreciation for learning and knowledge. Maybe if our society looked back to people like Joe Amato’s family they will realize that education and learning should be something to be appreciated. Joe Amato and his family struggled to just put food on their table or pay their rent, due to the fact they didn’t have an equal opportunity for an education or even a steady job for that matter. I think technology has taught us to take our education for granted. I even hear some people say- “Why learn it in class? I can just find it on the internet.”

technology

i feel that technology has brought us a very long way as far as means of communication is concerned. If you think about it, technology is in our lives everyday ,whether your watching tv or on facebook checking your comments. it has impacted us in sucha a way that i think even if we tried we couldnt live without technology. i think its both positive and negative because ..............to be continued

I have to give alot of credit to Mr. Joe Amato for continuing to futher his education dispite his family issues. I as continued to read, his education took him to a new place in his life, an English Professor. Then I started thinking, I tried to get into his head as he was growing up as he was progressing educationally dispite his family problems. Motivation and dedication was a deffinate role in his life.

I do believe however that he could have ommited many useless facts.

The reading from Joe Amato was rather compelling. It was interesting to get a feel for his family life, and values. He was vivid in his descriptions, leaving me feeling like I actually know a lot about his family and what he is about. He gets very vivid in his explanations of his siblings and how and where they reside. I can relate to many situations he is in…his father’s relationship with his brother definitely sounds all too familiar. It seems that he struggled very much so growing up, not having much money, his parent’s separation, having moved from his home, and many other struggles that might set one back. He still went on to school, and became extremely successful.
It was also interesting hearing about his work life and the corruption that it entailed. It seems that after time he conformed to the ways that were presented to him. He mentions having smiled whenever he was insulted...I enjoyed that.
It also seems that he ended up being a teacher, something that I can relate to. It is inspiring that even though life was not easy living for him he still aspired to do and be something more.

By reading Family Values by Joe Amato, I learned that as time passes by, so does technology and by being stubbern to it only means that technology will keep going forward, it's up to you to change with the times; adapt to the new technology but like in the reading you can't teach old an old dog new tricks.

language,poverty and culture

You can't help but feel the realness and inspiration when reading Joe Ammatos story. He goes into how much his family has struggled and draws you into his life by exposing his poverty that goes so far as to not being able to pay bills and so on. It is a true rags to riches story but as i like to think of it with a kick. The author comes from an italian culture that like many interplays with his american learned traditions. He speaks with a sort of italian - english style and keeps his culture alive throughout the story . i also liked how he spoke about the attitude his fily had towards things because i cant help but think of my own family experiences when reading.

Im glad to have learned throughout the story that he rose from poverty and was the first in his family to further his education and get a degree in engineering. I think this story is inspirational because people who come from a life like this can see that culture doesnt always set you back, ad if you really have the right determination you can get very far and make your family proud.

Literacy

As I read Joe Amato’s reading I couldn’t help but to think about all the struggles he went through in the course of his life. Being raised in a hard working family which in; everyone had their own problem. To having an engineering college degree.
I think this reading relates a lot to what we have been talking in class these past months, not only race, but social classes too, Also about literary backgrounds. I noticed as I was reading he talked about different languages his family speaks.

My thoughts about Joe Amato's Family Values

Reading through Joe Amato’s Family Values, I like the way he expresses about the people in his family. He does openly and says how they really are but in a respectful way. I like how he has some short sentences in the middle of regular sentences. Following his parents’ divorce, Joe and his father moved out to another house. They struggled living in this house and had to look for a new one. But even through all these he was the first person in his family to hold a four year college degree for engineering. He is now an assistant professor of English at a technical institute in Chicago.

Values

When I first started reading Joe Amato’s Family Values I was able to relate to him in some ways. My family also came to the United States from Italy and had to start from nothing. They had to rebuild their lives from the ground up again. Whenever there is a family gathering some type of English-Italian is always thrown in the mix but not just a word its usually a couple sentences in Italian and then right back to English. Since my grandparents have emigrated here from Italy it is hard for them to use some of the modern technology that we use every day. It’s hard for them to use a cell phone and call someone or even store numbers into the phone. They know how to use some of the technology used today such as a computer at first it was like learning English for the first time.

I like how he goes into detail about his past and his family because for a lot of people it is hard for them to relive the past and what they went through when they were children. He explains a little something about each of his uncles and his grandparents. He explains what they went through and all the family rumors that went on.

My point of veiw

After reading the first four pages of chapter twenty in Joe Amato’s book Family Values Literacy, Technology, and Uncle Sam, I thought that Joe Amato was an unorganized writer and his story is very annoying to read. Even though he was very detailed and he told all, everything was all over the place. If he had more organization in his story it would have been more enjoyable for me as a reader because my mind wouldn’t wander from one character (family member), to the next. It kind of seemed like he was just writing whatever came to his mind as he went along like someone would do in a journal. Some of the sentences belonged in a different place. He says that he has a problem with speaking English and speaks “broken English” I think he has a broken form of writing to. His style of writing is not something that I am used to. I think that a lot of people could relate to the things that he was talking about though.

Self created brilliance

To define the exact reasons why an individual speaks the way that they do is an impossible task and is open to complete debate. The way that you and we speak is for a number of reasons such as ware we grew up, the education we received, or the way language was spoken in the household as a child. All these aspects influence the way speak but influencing the way that knowledge is received, a cretin spectrum of understanding to understand the things surrounding the individual.
To say upbringing and education is the reason why a person will speak and learn in a cretin way is a very strong argument but I do not think that it is all that dictates how we learn and speak. If a person desired to speak a cretin way, the individual can strive toward their goal to change the way they use spoken language no matter what their upbringing or the way they were tough to speak was. Persistence and will are two unstoppable powers that can push a person to do whatever they want, breaking all rules that were learned in the past.

In Joe Amato’s narrative literacy he starts off telling about his family and how his grandparents act. He then proceeds to speak about when he was growing up he never had much of anything. On almost every page in the beginning of the narrative he states an obstacle his family came across. At the bottom of page one he talks about his grandmother and how when his father got back from the war with his French bride, Amato’s mother, she kicked them out for no apparent reason. Family struggles aren’t the only problems he depicts in his narrative. Like it is for a lot of families bills are also not the easiest things to keep on top of.
As he goes on to tell about his families’ poverty he says that when they were living in an upstairs apartment they didn’t pay their electricity bill therefore the electricity company shut off their power. To solve this problem he said he father paid the man Gerry downstairs twenty dollars a month to run an extension cord downstairs. Upstairs they would plug in the TV, a fan, a lamp and a refrigerator. They would put they fan by the oven and left the oven on for heat. After he overcomes all of these obstacles he goes on to succeed in the future.
He goes on to tell about how he went on to college and was the only person in his family to graduate with a four year degree and even more. Amato expresses his feeling about how he feels toward the way things work by putting each little piece of something to make it into one working system or machine. Since he was so interested in this he took an interest in engineering and got his degree for that. He even talks about how writing itself interests him because of the way every little letter goes together to form a working system which makes up a language or way of communicating.
Technology and writing are both composed of little pieces or bits of information molded together to form a working system. In my lifetime technology has advanced greatly to the point where the technology that is being invented has impacted my literacy acquisition. For example, the internet and advanced computers are probably one of the biggest things that impacted my literacy acquisition because it has enabled me to find information that i would have

what i think.....

What I think…….
I would agree with Prof. Leo technology is important and is highly influenced in our lives today. I would assume most of you who read this would agree. How many of us do you think could survive without MySpace, Facebook, twitter, or none the less a computer? When I read Joe’s narrative I liked it, it was better than the other readings, I liked his use of Italian English in academic terms which we talked about in Prof. Leo’s class on different languages. The reading is a very strong a descriptive story about what he does in his life.

One thing I found interesting in his reading is when he talks about his writing class his English is a heavy Italian English and I actually had to reread some sentences to understand them. Also what I found ironic is how Joe has a degree in engineering when my twin brother went away for college to become one. Getting back on topic Joe’s life was influenced by technology and is truly amazing how much one can do to succeed in life.

To summarize I couldn’t really say all the things I wanted to say but I think it is truly amazing how someone raised in lower class society can rise up and obtain a degree and make something big of themselves and be able to make a lot of money doing a job they like to do and what their best at doing. What my grandpa would always say “the day you’re born and the day you drop are not what counts it’s the dash in-between that counts. So how much can you accomplish with your dash?” I would definitely be amazed again if a read another narrative by Joe amato…..

Joe Amato's Family Values

At first I didn’t know what to expect when I first started reading Joe Amato’s story. As I read through it I found it to be very interesting. I can’t even imagine how difficult it must have been for him and his family to emigrate from another country. The language barrier alone must’ve been extremely hard to overcome.

I was very surprised when I read that he obtained a four year degree. You have to give him a lot of credit for becoming a teacher and a writer, especially since he came from Italy not knowing a lot of English. He describes the English that he and family use as “broken English”, but eventually he learns standard English and sort of navigates away from his family’s language. He seems to be very honest throughout the entire piece. I have a lot of respect for him considering everything he went through. He still was able to get an education and a career to support his family.

Family Values

This reading once again shows the struggle of going from one culture to another. The reading shows the struggle of being lower class. It also shows the struggle in family. It truly identifies the difference in people. The reading makes me feel that people tend to focuses on differences rather than similarities. Even in the reading Joe says he can tell the difference between the “haves” and the “have not’s”. It was simple for people to tell who had more or less and I feel it was definitely something that helped identify Joe.
Joe coming to America from another country with an Italian back round was definitely classified as a have not. Him growing up in a broken down house with even some of the basic necessities missing definitely shows great impact of his struggle. He had to use the stove to heat his home, he had his electricity cut off he had the basics to get by. It just really calls out.
It wasn’t bad enough that Joe lived in a broken home but even that he came from a broken family. He talked of experiences of family members not talking to one another for over 17 years! Lots of family’s have disputes arguments but he really captured the extreme points of when family members just break apart. But he even caught the best in family for example the fact that he still took care of his father in later years when it was needed. He would help his father pay things off and so on. He could have just as easily abandoned his father and took care of himself to help pay off his bills and his problems.
Something I can relate to is the family values. It is important to value your family. “Blood is thicker than water”. So pretty much that means when everyone else leaves you out to die your family will always be there to save you. I feel Joe had his family values set right even though other parts of his family had their values set in total disarray. Family will always be the most important thing in your life.

I thought the passage we read was a very personal record of his family and I am not really convinced that it can be related to a broader social spectrum of society as a whole. With each decade that passes social problems, status, and views change dramatically. You can see it as his family evolves into second and third generation Americans. I am sure Joe’s children if he decides to have any, will have a much better start than he did as a child just because he is now established in this country. They will probably exceed him in success just as he did his father because he now understands what it takes to make it in America, as in an education, a career, and an understanding of the culture. They will not really deal or even be exposed to the problems Joe saw with his family, with learning the language, finding jobs, or even interracial issues.
What they will be dealing with is the ever changing technology and how they want to incorporate that into their lives. Whether it is finding your wife on the internet as Joe did with Kass, or how much technology will affect the way they learn and work. The way technology evolves so quickly I think that it is inevitable and necessary that it does become part of the classroom. We should not assume that everyone has their own lab top however I believe it is fair to assume that every individual does have some type of access to the internet especially if they are going to school. And it has become vital to learn and be computer literate in our society because it is by no means going anywhere and will only become a bigger part of our everyday lives as society becomes more advanced. So to take technology out of the classroom because of economic assumptions would be a huge mistake.
Joe has another theme in his writing when he speaks of his father’s structural blindness and his own problems with placing his failures and successes on himself instead of his social and economic background. It raises some interesting questions about our nature versus nurture. Just as I had stated in the beginning his children are going to view the world very different from him because they had a more stable jumping off point from the very beginning.

...random thoughts...

When starting to read Joe Amato’s Family Values Literacy, Technology and Uncle Sam It really seemed like ok here is another story about a guy’s family. The further I dove into his story the more I started to learn about his ideas on technology and how greatly it influences our own literacy. Now it’s quite safe to argue that technology offers you quite an array of information which could help you in your success to learn, but can technology be discriminatory to people who can’t afford it? Are they getting the same education as someone who does have it? It’s quite an intriguing idea.
Technology is a blessing in all senses of literacy because with technology new languages have formed whether it is an off shoot of another language or it is just a completely made up language with symbols and abbreviations. Now some scholars might believe it is an abomination to language in itself, but I don’t believe that too much. Maybe it is just a new language developing, maybe it’s a start of advancement or maybe its people trying to make packing phrases and meaning into the smallest amount of space they can.
Mrs. Leo brings up a topic that Joe Amato goes into, I’m not sure if she got it from him or thought of it on her own , but it is the idea of is there power in the class room and if so who holds it? Naturally you would think that the teacher holds the power in the class room because they in facts hold all the grades. I think that’s true but I don’t believe they hold all of the power students in their own sense have power they choose what questions to ask, what direction the class is going to. Yeah the teacher has a destination but students can create detours to the destination and in fact explore other areas that the teacher never planned on going into. In my own opinion I believe that the power is set at a 80-20 ratio of the most power going to the teacher.
My Final thought that Joe touches on is the way culture can affect literacy. Oh it can in many ways such as banning of books like harry potter. Why? For its focus on witch craft which is against in the bible so some societies and cultures will refuse to let their kids read that. Cultures have the abilities to limit your own literacy. It also has a chance to expand it such as phrases cultures use that can mean a big picture over all. Joe touched on these topics and brought the idea sto many people’s eyes. It can’t hurt to read it and take a look at it for you.

Thoughts

I really liked Joe Amatos literacy. He was very open and talked freely without caring what he said. He has a lot of opinions about things that most people wouldn’t agree to. Right off the bat he just goes off telling you how he has an uncle, who was in prison for twenty one years. That just goes to show you how truthful and honest he is. I think having those traits makes you a great writer. What I also like about his literacy is he puts personal events about his mother, such as her having a child and the child died as an infant. Also that she had a miscarriage too. Joe gives great details about all the characters and gives us an idea of how they are. With all his information of his background it also gives us a great picture of how they lived and where they came from.
Technology has changed everything on how we communicate. I think it has changed on everybody’s communication because many are too into the texting, aol, facebook, and so on. Which made them forget how to really communicate in person or even how to write.

To be continued

Childhood Struggles

Joe Amato’s Family Values started out a little boring, just listing things about his childhood. After I really started reading, I noticed that I can relate to this passage in some ways. Going through childhood struggles is a hard thing to overcome. His family was separated and not to close, just as mine. Then again, his story is very different from mine. He is an Italian immigrant with a convict uncle, and a grandpa with “broken” English.

You can tell that he had to overcome many struggles in life, and get past them, which he did. He overcame everything thrown his way, and went off to become successful. He gave many examples of the hardships he endured which shows what he really had to go through, and really opens you up to how he probably felt. Amato puts in such personal details that you can put yourself in his shoes and really see things from his point of view.

I think that technology has really shaped life, but also education. E-mail accounts are almost necessary, and books are rarely used for research anymore. The internet is a whole new way to live, and a lot of people can’t live without it.

I think that Joe Amato really shows that going through some rough times may be a challenge, but if you strive for what you want, you can get there. This is true for everyone, if you push yourself, you can achieve great things. Sometimes you just have to look at the bright side of things, and use the struggles as motivation. The struggles in my life push me to do bigger things and be a better person, and I think that all people should think this way. It ties into many of the other readings that show the theme of struggles making the writers who they are today, for example Carolina Maria De Jesus’ Child of the Dark.

Chyeahhh Joe Amatoooooo

I found the reading to be boring but it takes a lot to entertain me with books considering I read books about drugs, sex and alcohol. The social issues behind them just interest me but I digress. Don’t get me wrong I love a story about family and struggle and overcoming the struggle however, this reading in particular bored me.

In some ways, I can relate to Joe Amatos Family values. Considering I get a call from my grama at least once a day about her computer, i know how to use technology, and I try to relay the skills to her. A rolling joke in my family is “IM IN YAHOO!" This is because we were teaching my grama how to get pictures from her camera to her computer and we gave her directions and she completely disregarded what we said and continued to tell us 3 times that she was "IN YAHOO!" All joking aside however, I never had to deal with learning 2 languages for my family however I relate to the technology aspect. I give my grama credit for even trying to learn the in’s and out’s of today’s technology. Her and my gramps are pretty shweet on the computer and I hate to say it but my grama is now on Facebook.

Although the technology argument isn’t “life threatening” or against peoples “moral values” it does happen to be controversial. In some ways technology really “blows” for lack of better words because many people lost their “people skills” and use “aim talk.” However, look at the medical advances we’ve made with preventative care and the cures to diseases that didn’t exist 10 years ago. People are living longer however lives are now cut shorter because the lack of exercise.

People live on their computers in today’s times. Hey how about instead of goin on Facebook, go on a nice long walk or clean your room or dare I say it?...hit the gym! Wowwwwwww miraculous solutions to this “epidemic.” And all you skinny people out there don’t condescend to people who are overweight. However, I digress again.

Joe Amato touches on these topics but what I got out of it is a “coming of age” story about his family i.e. learning new things, stepping into a new generation, a new era of the world. The lesson I learned is to keep an open mind and try to give all new events and products a try, if you don’t like it “spit it out” as I always say.

Relating and Recapping

When I first began this reading I was surprised to see how it related to my own life so much. Like Joe I too am Italian. My grandfather came to America from Sicily as well. Ironically I had a great-grandmother who lived to be 101. Although we have these similarities what I found most intriguing about his writing was what he took from all this.

I really liked the beginning; I felt it set the mood for the rest of the reading. I think in his case, like many others it’s important to see where they began in comparison to where he is now. He definitely got the point across that his life wasn’t easy and he along with the rest of his family struggled and worked hard. He was very descriptive and personal which helped me understand his life even better.

This reading reminded me a little of “Child of the Dark” to see how someone came for a hard place to become successful in life. He went to college and can support himself, which he even mentioned was the first in his family. This reading also relates to a lot of what we discuss in class, because it did show a little slang and talked about “broken” English.

I liked his mention of technology as well. I think technology gives use the resources we need to learn more and in depth. We can Google something in 5 seconds and have a million answers. In conclusion I enjoyed the reading and thought it was very interesting, I liked reading about his life and achievements, because a lot of people think they are going to do what they’re parents did. In reality we can achieve great things no matter who our family is or what they’ve done. We can all create a new path.

Joe's Tech

Technology In my eyes is the most beneficial to everyone’s literacy. You get so much practice in writing, reading, and overall just learning and seeing some many new things that contribute to your literacy. For example the internet is the best way that I can think of to find and learn many new things today. You can actually enhance your intelligence with the use of this technology and other things such as cell phones, etc. Joe Amato understood the fact that its just impossible to get out of poverty without seeking a better education. I think that this is true because now a day’s in this society everyone needs to at least have a four year education from college to get a decent job if that. Its hard to succeed in this society with just a high school diploma.

I find that Joe’s writer’s voice is very alive. He describes his life struggles with his parents being in poverty and how he was in debt. If it wasn’t for the sad passing of his parents he would not have even been able to get out of this endless pit we call credit. All though he was able to pay off his debt and just get by his brother was able to get his business off the ground with the life insurance money . This difference between him and his brother is probably due to the intelligence of each. Maybe his brother was wise about his money and was not so much in debt that he was able to strive for better things.”I tend to believe that people with money and property in their families, with a real estate in their futures, derive a sense of security in the same. ” I think that Joe meant by this that in having a home or something that is yours completely provides you and your family peace at mind. This peace at mind is just something more not to worry about your children’s future because if anything is to happen they will be compensated for their losses. I would be practically lost if it wasn’t for my computers , cell phones , and mostly youtube. If it wasn’t for youtube I wouldn’t have learned much about my viewings because vision is a very good way to learn new things.

Certain Circumstances

When reading Family values Literacy, Technology, and Uncle Sam by Joe Amato he expresses how his situation and his way of life are affecting him and the people around him. He uses the term “communications technologies” and how we need them and how they need to be used. Like Joe I would have to agree and express how these things have a big effect in my life.

Growing up with a Puerto Rican backround I would have to say that there are many things that we are blessed with and something’s we don’t get to have the privilege in having. My mother grew up most of her life in both Puerto Rico and Long Island. She was able to pick up both English and Spanish very well. After high school my mother never went to college and the same with my father so growing up with the latest things, money wise wasn’t so great. Being the only child in the family to go to college I can see how technology has changed the way people live. If we had the things now to use back the life would be a whole different story.

I can see how this would also concern Amato and how can we focus on this when in some situations it is not open to everyone. The reading reading also reminded me of some of the other readings we have done and how education has an effect on how we look and pursue life in our circumstance.

beating the odds

Literacy is all that you’ve learned from even your first learning experience as an infant. I was brought up in a working class family, so the grades I got did not really matter to my parents. I was always taught just to get a passing grade and that’s all. Now that I’m older and in college I have come to realize the way you speak and write means a lot. I believe those who have more struggles with how they practice there literacy skills tells a lot about a person. This is something I have been working on to improve.

In Joe Amatos’s narrative he illustrates how he did not have much growing up. He was an immigrant from Italy, and even though he wasn’t a citizen he was an over achiever. I can relate to Amato because my father was raised by a native Czech Republic father, and his mother was an immigrant from Italy. My father’s upbringing now influences me because he is not aware of all the technology that there is today, and he isn’t concerned with grades from school. It’s challenging to me to navigate myself through college now because everything is based on technology and the grades you get. However he has the most authority in my house, so for now I’m stuck without a computer, and still keeping track of my own grades, making sure I’m doing the best I know I can do.

I find Joe Amato to be inspiring to me. He started off my speaking “Italian English” then later found himself to speak structured, proper English. Also I was baffled that he had a degree in engineering. That’s pretty incredible if you think about it. This young man went from living in a household where they did not have much of anything, to fulfilling his dream and accomplishing what he knew he could.

In all, I do not believe that if you grow up lower class you will stay there. People prove that to be wrong every day. There are rich people in society today who end up as working class people. There should be no reason why one would not want to better themselves no matter how they grew up, or where they came from. Everybody has the opportunity to be whatever it is they want to be.

I think

While I was reading Joe Amato’s work on “Family Values Literacy, Technology, and Uncle Sam” I found it a bit annoying to read at first because he just kept listing alot of facts, which made me lose interest in it at first. As I kept reading it started to catch my attention. I noticed how he spoke about so many hardships that he went through. He lists so many of the things his family did and how they survived in the world. He spoke about how he studied engineering being the first to graduate from a four year college.

Alot of people now days struggle with their lives. I know I came to America with my family thinking life would be much better once we got here. Wasn't I mistaken life here is just as hard sure you get a better education but life is still hard. Even through struggles we can still prevail like Joe Amato did by working hard in day to day life and achivieng a status for ones self

My Idea of Joe's family values

When I first started reading Joe Amato’s Family values I really didn’t know what it was I was reading. There was so much information being given I found it hard to understand what it was he was trying to explain. After reading a few other peoples writings in this class I thought his would be the same. The most interesting thing about his writing is that he likes to jump all over the place when talking about his family history and this can sort of throw the reader off. Yet after reading his story the whole way through I kind of feel like that may be part of his point. The ideas that he touches on are things I have been thinking about in my writing as well.

The main thing that comes through across his entire work, which spans a large part of his life, his this idea that the literacy language that has been weaved into his and his families lives was one that had a strict set of rules that didn’t cater to the population as a whole. It left his family out in the cold so to speak. He hints that this is the reason for some of the major problem in his families lives especially his father. His dad had been through a lot and he was an intelligent man but one of the hardest things for him to understand was why he had to fill out one of those “damned” welfare forms as he put it. Joe then really began to explain the true meaning of what it was that his family had never learned about. This lack of knowledge that had left his father, a fairly intelligent man, confused about what it was he was doing with his life.

The idea that the social classes that make up this world and further more the people who make them have no intentions of creating an equal learning ground for those in the lower social classes. Joe went on to explain that his father had never been exposed to this idea, never was taught the concept, that he was on a lower level than other and was taught a specific way that probably never catered to his needs. It left him to feel that everything that had happened to him was his own fault and the burden of his problems was his own doing. It’s a sad truth that Joe describes so purposely and it really makes you think about the way the world is today.

Has anything changed since Joe’s fathers’ time or are we still taught and limited within these same social constraints? Maybe it’s the fact that now at least we have the knowledge that we can go beyond our own educational system to better ourselves if we so choose. We are still confined to the same of learning in the same social classes but we are at least encouraged, if we are so lucky to have a teacher to do so, that we have the ability to break free and move beyond the strict educational ways and move into a more freely based learning experience. Like Joe my ideas may be all over the place but that is because I have decided that the strict learning regiment will not tie down my ability to be a creative thinker.

Joe Amato: His Story

When I first started reading Family Values by Joe Amato I didn’t know what to think. I thought it was going to probably be boring and hard to get through. I expected it to be like every other story I’ve read about a struggling family who just moved to America. Joe Amato’s story was slight different, there was something about it that made it relatable and original. Even though I wasn’t able to relate directly, he wrote in a descriptive way that made it easy to understand what he was going through.

As an immigrant from Italy, there were many obstacles that as a family had to be faced and conquered. As I read his story I never would have guessed that he obtained a four year degree and was now a teacher and a writer. He was able to read, write, and speak English, all of which are challenges in themselves for an immigrant.

There is a part of his selection where he describes the way his grandpa speaks as “broken” English. He also stated that even though his English is “broken” that he is still proud to be a naturalized United States citizen. Even though his English may not be perfect, in my opinion he knew more about the United States than most others. When asked “How many congressman are in the House of Representatives?” or “How many senators are in the Senate?” he knew the answers.

Everyone who immigrates into a new country, or is directly affected by immigration through family members and relatives has a new way of adjusting and excelling. For Joe Amato it was reading, writing, speaking, getting a good education, and a career that would support his family. I have a lot of respect for Amato because he could have given up, but he knew what he had to do for himself and his family. He didn’t waste any time, he knew what he had to do and he got it done. He was the only one in his family to get a degree and he has come so far.

FAMILY VALUES!

When i began reading this Literacy Narative " family values " by joe amato. I was honestly confused about what this reading was going to say. At first just giving a glance to it i thought he was only going to speak about his family life, their family struggle as italians in america.

But, i was surprised to see him tie in his life as an writer and teacher. After reading the first couple of pages about his life, his family. I never thought that he would become what he is now. I guess that was me being steriotypical. I am an italian myself but it just seemed like he wouldnt take the career path he has chosen. But who am i to say that he couldnt do what ever he desired. I am a writer myself and i bet people look at me and my family and wouldnt think that when i go home i like to sit down and read or write for fun. It's always cool to see someone come from something so different, a different kind of culture and see them make a complete change. It's difficult and i deffintley have respect for him for that.



There is a section in the reading where he discusses postive encouragment in writing with his students or just in general. I agree 100% that that is extremely important. I can defintley identify as a studen who wants postive encouragement and feedback. Not all feedback is postive but ethier way id like to hear an oppinon. Also i thought it was interesting that he went to college for technology, but then decided to pursue English. Those two things didnt seem to go hand in hand to me. Thats a big career change if you ask me. But i guess techonolgy and English do have some similarities.

Overall i cant say this wasn't my favorite reading, It really wasn't anything different from what we previously read. Someone with a lower class background trying to better themseleves. But it wasnt too hard to read. So thats a plus. Id like to see in the future something a little different.

My Thoughs on Joe

I truly understand the exactly where Joe is coming from in his story. Even though there is a total difference between my background culture (Dominican) and Joe's coming from a "True Italian" Generation there are plenty of things in common between the two regarding family rules and traditional rules. For example my family never my sister to get married to someone none Dominican and someone that was not a professional (MBA) in a certain subject, of course that political would be the preferred of all. and of course it was very traditional that woman would stay home cleaning, baby sitting and taking care of the house of if their was workers sort of manage over the cleaning crew. The man was always the one involved in any decision making regarding house or outside business.

Something very common as well is the man having woman out of the home relationship and the most of the wife new about it and really did not had much to said about it as long as there was food on the table and all the bill were paid. One thing that I can see vary is the way of his father thinking from mine, is about the position he had in life. My father was ambitious and never wanted us to be any different. School was pushed onto us as a primary goal

I would not criticise him because of the way he referred to his family. I do feel that even though everything seems to be perfect and that we are all equal is not, at least that's my opinion. Through my work and life experience i notice that know matter how hard you try to get out and be acknowledge for trying to better your self and be up to the standards you will still be how they see you, if is at your job or school, friends, etc, etc. I guess the important thing is to know where you want to go and believe on the path you have chosen. There are going to be those along the way that are going to try to push you of the road but you have to stay focus and keep walking the line until you get there, or at least try. It is not easy specially for those of us that have a strong accent and have a very strong background of our roots, like they say there are somethings that were not meant to change, maybe you are one of them. But do learn who and where you going because in my opinion lots of people are worry to please everyone and to have many friends, but all you need is a very good friend or hand to help, listen, advise you or recognize you in the time need it. So regardless of the hard road ahead, stay focus and don't stop until you get there don't look back.

Chris's opinion.

In Family Values -Literacy, Technology and Uncle Sam, Amato shows all the characteristics of the members in his family. He came from another family from Italy that immigrated to the US and had problems speaking english and he describes it as "broken English". This relates to me because I went through this same experience since I migrated to the US about 8 years ago. As many other people we didn't know much English; The only English knowledge i knew was from the few English classes i had taken over there, but with the years i have learned it and feel myself more of a citizen.

I find very interesting the way that Amato expresses himself about writing. For many people ,writing is not really a main part of their lives but it is for Amato. He talks about writing in details and he's pointed out some facts that i hadn't realized. He sees that writing can be in various forms and these are "the alphabet(of course), paper, ink,software, hardware, hands". These are things i dont keep in mind but are true because most of students use computers in a daily basis and chat and emails each other and get essays typed up to hand in. Most of the writing nowadays is done on computers.And it's fun!

He also tries to make a point saying that writing doesnt have to look in one standard way and that throughout the years writing changes.He points out the swerves of an S and the zigzags of the Z; this made me think about how the letters could have changed over time and they will keep on doing it as the generations pass by.

A Forced Unity

We are in a world where understanding becomes irrelevant when communication, composition, and literature become involved. I have said before how standard is a word used to describe the formal procedure in which everyone must follow. Society wishes to connect the world under certain standards in yet people resist them. They are of afraid of losing their culture and ideals in the process. This is what is known as oppression. It is a method of coercing individuals into adopting a new culture. We are people of diverse backgrounds. Joe Amato is no exception to this idea. He has interesting ideals about how outside influences effect our skills in reading, writing, and perceiving.
I find Amato's narrative full of "life". What I mean is that he speaking in his own words in the reading rather than him talking about the usual case scenario of an author's past experiences. He speaks of what he wants to hear himself while at the same time creating something for the reader to think and enjoy rather than writing some juicy gossip. He says, "When I work with words, as in this essay, I'm alternately revealing some truths about myself and exposing truths about others." I find that interesting considering the fact that I never have a clue what to do when I am writing my essays.

Family Values =/

My Thoughts on the joe amato Story i enjoyed reading it even though it was boring in some parts. He talks alot about his family and his relationship with them with no discretion or shame he seems completely honest with what he is saying.most familys would keep their family business discreet and wouldnt lett people know that tere family member is in jail or that he did not like to work.

i feel that the story touched on alot of different things like the need for new technology me myself being in the new more modern time i need my technology like my texting im cellphones ect. i feel like i am lost with out it. The new technology can be good and also bad because it can help us upgrade our ways of communication but it can also make us downgrade our speaking skills.but i deeply related to joe amatos thoughts on technology.

My Point Of View On Joe Amato

Personally I like Joe Amato story, he is really honest and talk about his background without any discretion. In other families they would not talk about a family member being in prison for 21 years and that he did not like to work and usually is making phony claim to the insurances or say the one of his aunts had an affair with a African American throught the war. That makes the story unique. Writers sometimes do not like to get so personal especially is there is something that will bother them like his parents divorce and how his mom through him out of the house when he brought his wife to the house because she was French.
Sometimes our backgrounds put barriers in how we develop as a person specially educationally, middle class parents have a lot of problem to provide to their children who would like to go a specific university because the lack of funds and the influence a lot. How depends where did you go to school thats is going to difine what type a job you will get.
I agree wit Joe Amato it is true the technology is able to help us to write and compose people could write about anything now in days; you could be writing about news in China if you want to in the same day of a event happen, just you have to look in the internet or the media and you will be able to write about a specific event.

i thought that joe amatos literacy was an okay reading. i liked how he started off in a way like a flashback, that was interesting way of begining a story. i also liked when he talekd about his past and his family. after that i thought the reading was a little boring but he did make some interesting points that he made throughout the story. one thing i really liked was at the end of the reading was when he said that he talked about his personal things to show how he got to his social and economic status he is in.

My Own Post

I believe that Joe Amato's reading was a very good reading about cultural technology. Not everyone has technology so we shouldn't go by one's knowledge if they don't have a computer. There is different writings such as blogs are differ from writings that we write about on our aim or in an essay. We should not be judged on our education if we do not have certain technology. I think that technology does show us a different side of things rather than writing all the time on a piece of paper. Blogging could be an example of a different writing. Blogging is your own personal opinion to something and writing about it and no one is correcting your spelling or grammar. We are limited if we don't have technology. Technology is important in our everyday life just as reading and writing is. Technology shows us how to type differently and to explore different websites. There is writing on facebook, twitter, myspace and emails.
In classroom teachers do have the most power if we do think of it. They are the ones standing in front of the classroom trying to teach different material to us in ways that we can understand them. We obey teachers and there rules in the classrooms. Teachers like to encourage and some like to discourage the technology used. In some classes I use my email all the time and in others there is no need for me to have an email or any communication with my teachers. To contradict myself we the students might have some power as well too, teachers don't have websites they can go on to have there students rated, but us students can rate our professors. Ratemyprofessor.com is a way to hear other students tell us about that certain teacher they had and if they give a lot of homework, if there mean, or if there an easy teacher that just doesn't care. We have the power to look at this and see what class we should actually try and one that we just shouldn't even bother with. I don't believe though that it should effect your social class and where you belong if you don't have certain technology even though it does limit you in some way. Everyone has there own position and standing in life for who they are if they have different racial or gender then others. Our culture ignores these influences because we don't live in a world that is equal. Everyone is different in their own way but by there differences they can be in a lower or higher social ranking.
I never think we should forget who we are or act different to forget our own certain status. We should be excepted no matter who we are but unfortunately things don't work that way in the world. Status really doesn't mean anything to me, but in other cultures being at a high level of ranking is important and sometimes people go to different measures to forget there status and where they really came from. By using texting and iming makes us more open to the different communications that we have with one another. In texting and iming we don't use the normal everyday standard english that we write in papers we use the language and the writing that is more comfortable to us. There's different writing technologies such as a phone, computer, tv that there is writing on. Technology can actually make us better in our writing and reading because we can learn to read and write on the computer as well not just by book or someone teaching it to us. But why should one be judged and put in a certain status if that person doesn't have the right tools or technology? If we all had the same tools and technology in life we'd all be the same and thats not making us unique from one another.

My Feedback On Joe Amato Family Values / Profesor Leo Blogging

Before i display my feedback on Joe Amato's Reading. i would like to address a very valuable topic that interested me that was brought up by Professor Leo. In her response to Joe Amato's writing , Professor mentioned on a persons position in a classroom. If there are positions in a classroom , obviously there are only two, Teacher , and Student. All my life , i always thought the student learns from the teacher (which is true). But on the flipside, just because you finish college doesn't mean you have all knowledge. You need experience (both positive and negative) along with your knowledge to help one's career develop. So theoretically both students and teachers are learning so there is no position in a classroom i believe.

Professor Leo also mentioned a very debatable subject. She talks about the "Power in a classroom". Is there power in a classroom?. Me personally i think there is, and 110% of it is held by the teacher. Just not in the classroom , generally in life it goes the same way. " The student learns from the teacher". We all are born oblivious to the world , not knowing anything until someone ( usually parents or people whole substitute their role) teaches us tactics of life. In any type of subject sports, education, even daily living tactics just as eating , cleaning walking, talking etc.... the list can go on forever. Although people can learn certain things by themselves, no one can learn everything without being taught by someone.

Through Amato's writing we learn that he begins to use technology into his teaching but because we are all different and come from different backgrounds. Some kids don't have the technology at home to use for school. Just like at SCCC, not everyone has assess to a computer at home and it is much harder for them to do their work. They have to make sure they have time to go to the library at school to do an essay or check their email.

I believe that we all learn differently, each generation and even each year because new technology comes out that can help us learn how to read and write easier and better. But i believe that ethnic background does influence how we learn especially when we are the first generation to America and our parents are immigrants. Most countries that our parents were born from don't have the technology that the U.S has so we have to learn it on our own and become accustomed to it. We all also have to consider that not everyone is well off to where they can have all the up to date technology or even just a computer to access at home. It has become harder to avoid not having a computer because everything is done on the internet now so some people are struggling to advance and grow because they can't afford it.

This reminds me of my family because my mother is an immigrant from Italy and she doesn't know how to the use the computer or how to text at all. My brother and I had to force her to get us a computer because we needed it for school. My mom didn't think we needed it because she never used one when she went to school. Or even some cultures don't believe in technology and parents prevent their kids from using it because it is against their culture. How do their kids grow and learn in school if they can't use a computer? This prevents them growing and developing.

Our family influences greatly on how we grow and learn through speaking and listening to one another. But our school life affects our development as well. Everything and everyone influences the way we grow and should take advantage of it to advance into the adult world when we get a job.

A la Famiglia

From reading Amot's narrative it is interesting how he talks about the ways in which we use different types of technology in and out of the classroom when it comes to writing. Even though we tend to think that we may not read or write on a daily basis we actually due. When your on facebook updating your status or sending out a text to a friend or even reading things off of the internet we in fact are constantly reading and writing.

I like the question that you posted asking"Should we forget who we are in order to to gain a certain status". In my own personal opinion i think we shouldn't. Yes of course as we get older we should know the standard way of speaking and writing english, thats a given but do i think we should just forget about who we are and where we came from completly, no. You should always carry with you what you have learned through out the years of schooling and from self learning and how you go to be where you are today.

In the classroom like you said we tend to not know where we may stand inside of the class and who really has the power. Usually one may think it is the teacher, but to me you cant run a class without students so in some ways the students usually tend to have the power when it comes to the classroom. Students have a voice and share opinions and if anything i think that most teachers or professors can learn a lot from students and learn new things and take certain information that they have learned with them for the rest of their teaching carreir.

Of course these are just my opinions and you can agree or disagree with them. I feel through reading parts of his narrative this is what he wanted us to do.. to have an opinion on the different ways we use technology in the classroom and all the different ways that we use it.

hmmmm...i guess untitled

i dont know where to start. i understand what he was talking about, how technology affects, or changes our literacy. you learn so much from every aspect of life, we just dont notice, i dont notice. i didnt start to notice the changes and how these changes came about until i was asked to look for them. i understand why the way i am a little better than i did, its nice in a way but it also makes me question myself more. is that a bad thing??? im not completely sure, it can be in some situations but not all situations. again, im not sure what im supossed to be writing here or where im going with this blog. a reflection of some sort. who knows?

communications technologies are very important, i know that because i use them everyday, almost all day as well. i was never very fond of writing, i recently have become a fan though. before the present day in which i live, i was sure that i didnt like writing, but now that i think of it, i subconsiously bagan to like writing without even knowing. i remember back in the day, when i was young there was something new brought into the lives of all us americans, AOL. i think thats where i began my writing, at this point i dont know if i liked writing yet, but ive allowed it to become a part of my social life. instead of talking on the phone i would spend hours typing, who would have knew? i typed so much, i practicly had carpotunnel(spell check). now that i have a cell phone, texting is something i do more than anything, i dont even have alot of minutes, all i do is text. i want to say that it makes my life easier but at the same time it makes life harder as well. i know anyone who has had a cell phone and a signifigant other, has had miscommunications through text message. i know ive had, recently too.

to be continued....

Response

I think the media and technology have a lot to do with society and social status in a culture. The environment we are surrounded by and the advantages we have growing up affect the way we learn and our desire to learn. Our desire to learn affects the way we learn. If someone goes to a school where there is computer access available at their fellow students' homes and they don't have a computer so they have to write more or go out of their way to go to a library and they have other obligations like a job or taking care of kids, that person might be struggling a lot and feel as if they are not doing as good as other students because they are having more trouble with their work. If they see themselves as a "bad" student, they will just stress themselves out more and perhaps even feel like they should just quit.

I feel like instructors would have a tough time too, dealing with students who don't have the "latest technologies" or surround themselves with a different culture rather than our American society. What if a teacher didn't have access or involve themselves with technological advances? Learning can be enhanced with these new technologies, but it could also mislead them into the illusion of learning. To me, learning comes with interaction and communication amongst people. Along with learning facts and how to do things through an educational structure, communication and how people learn develope social skills and people related learning. If people learned how to communicate clearly and with empathy and understanding, there would be less negativity in the world and more sharing of ideas and mental expansion. Learning, theories, and information would just grow and there would be a mutual understanding of human emotions and behavior if people just knew how to communicate peacefully without getting defensive and/or feel isolated.

I'm not saying that technology can't help improve communication. Computers and internet access are great ways to get information out there for the public to view and to organize information. But how do you know your information and ideas are getting out to the public? Are people interested? Are people even aware of what you're talking about? How will people learn things if they don't know there are things to be learned? This is where our media comes into play, and how through technology, the media along side corperate industries distract the masses with information that doesn't really affect their self happiness or health. Some of this information is used as an escape from "the real world" and some of it is used to distract us from political issues that are actually important, in my opinion. An example of this could be what I read yesteday on my "news today" on AOL. With the headline "Do you believe you are not racist? Take this quiz to find out the truth on how racist you really are!" I thought to myself, you are what you believe you are and you are what your conscious and subconscious ideas display to yourself and others. A quiz is not needed to determine if one is racist or not, being honest with yourself determines this, not even that but one's behavior. Racism issues, gay rights issues, abortion issues...I'm not claiming that these aren't significant in one's life, but the only reason they are is because they are displayed that way through the media and it keeps us busy thinking about these issues that shouldn't really exist, and keeps us debating amongst ourselves about what is "right" and what is "wrong" when in reality nothing is "right" or "wrong" especially these issues; what the government does with our money, all of the things we don't know about, that we don't even know to question because we don't know of its existance because the people and the government have been seperated through our axis of money and power...these are issues that should be discussed, not only discussed but have action sought upon them. Things that affect our country as a whole, a man or woman's freedom to be a human being, which is to live their life and decide what life means to them instead of being born in a society where you pop out with a blind fold on and you don't even realize you have a blind fold on because you've been blind your whole life. Technology feeds the public mind what they want to hear, not what they need to hear, it desensatizes the public to others, real life issues, and themselves and their conscious awareness.

Facebook and Myspace are also both potentially damaging to the way people interact with each other. There is no emotion behind written words, language is very important. To me language is body language, the tone in someone's voice, the intent behind the words and the understanding of words between two people. Texting and messaging through the internet leaves too many variables to be sure that a mutual understanding is being created though conversation.

I agree with Prof. Leo's post. I believe that technology is very important in and out of the class room. Joe talks about the technology in the class room as being power or a new idea as Prof. Leo had said, but I believe it is more like a powerful idea. The reason I say this is because technology is a big part of every one's life. I don't think this ties into family values but being that it is talking about the education, its important in and out of a class room. When we talked about who had the power in a classroom it was a tough topic. No one really knew who ran it, because it all depends on who the teacher is. I remember we discussed when you have a substitute teachersor are the students in control, but when there is a tough teacher , the students know who the boss it. So being the the Internet or technology is power, in away it is. It shows us new things that we can't acquire in a classroom or in life without the use of technology.

When Prof. Leo gets into how while she was reading she thought about what we talk about in class, she makes really good points. When she brings up culture and how our world (meaning society) See's it. I believe that our culture is influenced by so many different cultures. The reason i say this is because we do things that were brought here by other cultures and people adapt to them. But is still believe not all cultures are taking in by people. I do believe that many cultures are ignored or disgraced upon as Joe talks about race and discrimination. Discrimination can mean so many things not just in race, and I believe discrimination is based upon ignorance. The reason people ignore some cultures is because they don't want to learn from them. This goes back into the classroom talk. Who really tells us what we can or can't learn? Who tells us why we should learn this way and not another way? I know we talked about learning to read and write in terms of "standard English". We had a deep discussion on that topic for awhile. So is "standard English" something that everyone knows? Of course not! We talked about this, and we even did our project on this so i won't go deep in to slang and all of that, but what is this trying to say about culture. Do we choose what we want to learn or are we in away taught what to learn?

Over all this is all about technology and how is shapes us. I believe technology is our new teacher but you can't learn everything from technology. I believe that people are taking technology a little to far because people use it everyday. What people don't realize is that technology isn't everything. Dose the Internet lie to us? I think it does. Not all the time but i do believe there are the lies. So if the Internet lies, why are so many people using it as a guide of learning? Well technology is good and bad, but there is no right answer to that. As I come to an end, I Want to add, that not only technology influences us, but so does culture and family. Not only in the classroom but on the streets as well.

Family Values

When I first Started reading his narrative I found myself a little annoyed at the sentence fragments. The way Joe talked about his life was so descriptive; it was the first narrative that I did enjoy. The type of language that he used was his native tounge; a theme talked about often in my english class. I would say that this narrative is based on language. It's one of the most powerful parts of the story, it makes it his story.

One thing I found interesting was when he started talking about what he does, when I heard that he worked on a writing class I was a little confused. At that part of the story the way he talked totally changed, he went from "Italian English", to an academic language that made me double read his sentences. It is inredible to know that someone can make an academic kind of change in their life.

Honestly I couldn't find mush to say about what I read. To summarize Joe Amato's Family values I would say that it's another story of somone in a lower class community being the first of their family to get a four degree and make something of themselves, and to be able to pay bills and teach people. I find that there is often a like for art and literature for those who are not often around it or can't access it. I can't be suprised when I read another story of this kind.

My Thoughts on Joe Amato's Family Values: Literacy, Technology and Uncle Sam

A la famiglia

In Family Values: Literacy, Technology and Uncle Sam Joe Amato narrates how our lives and experiences effect our approach to composing (writing) in the classroom. Not only is Amato concerned with students but instructors who have to negotiate their lives and the social situations that have created them into the teachers, writers and researchers they become. This is something we talked about a couple of weeks ago when we discussed who has the power in the classroom. Does anyone? How do we figure out these power structures and work within them to learn from each other? Through Amato’s own personal background the reader learns how technology has become a part of his teaching but how economic influences can strongly impact literacy practices as well. In other words, can or should I assume that you all have access to the internet? Should I encourage you all to explore technology and its impact on your writing? Amato’s narrative strongly encourages me to consider how our (you as students and me as an instructor) socio economic and ethnic backgrounds influence the way in which we grow as learners.

Amato says, “The point is that my father had never developed the tools-the critical tools- to think about his social circumstances in social terms” and “Despite my having observed this structural blindness in my father, I think I sometimes suffer myself from precisely this ailment: I often find myself attributing my successes and failures solely to my own choices, my own efforts, rather than to my social circumstances” (380). I related deeply to these passages. I think that I had become so sheltered by the disillusioned position society had thrust upon me, that it became difficult to see who I was through the standards that would make me more than a working class citizen.

Now I wanna break it down and be a little less formal in thinking about Joe Amato’s literacy narrative. It made me think about several themes that we’ve discussed in class and those are…..issues of class identity, gender and race discrimination as it pertains to language, literacy, power and oppression. As an Italian-American woman reading Amato’s narrative helped me understand my own past and the struggles I’ve had understanding my position in life and in the classroom. I thought his narrative was honest and told a story that some might find offensive and inappropriate BUT he is uncovering issues of racial and gender discrimination and considering how it has influenced his own thinking. Do we live in a culture that ignores these influences or are we encouraged by mass media to believe we function in a world that is equal? Should we forget who we are in order to gain a certain status? These are hard questions and not one that can be answered in a semester. Instead I wanna try and think about Amato’s piece in relation to the theme educational power ie. how we acquire literacy and who helps build knowledge making.

As I reread sections I find Amato challenging the power structures by discussing his commitment to technologies. He says, “We need these new communications technologies” (384). It’s so easy to text, IM, blog, twitter, use myspace or facebook to talk about things that happen in the classroom and our lives. In what ways have these technologies influenced the act of reading and our writing process? These tools help us understand different genres of writing that will influence some if not most of your professional careers. And as it works with the theme of power and oppression…….shouldn’t we consider the creation of ratemyprofessor.com? That’s technology challenging the status quo of power. Does Amato feel he has power? Is the classroom a place for power struggles or a place to explore together the idea of “power”? If these are issues that you find interesting and intrigue you, you’ll want to look at Michel Foucault, Cornel West and Keith Gilyard, bell hooks just to name a few. Go ahead just wiki or google them.

Ahhh and to end here “A la famiglia”. This is a saying that my family uses whenever we celebrate. It’s something I use here to celebrate how the idea of “the family” really is the root of where we should begin to consider our connections to literacy. It’s our parents, siblings, grandparents, Aunties, Uncles and friends who initially help us shape our reading, writing, thinking and speaking. Our academic lives add to this engagement too. Just as Amato explores those beginnings we should too.

Remember y’all have fun with this!!

Check out Amato's blog http://joeamato.net/