Franco 1

Thomas Franco
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-013
23 September 2014
Literacy = Power.
The higher educated and higher society people have been dominating the world for
centuries. Have you ever wondered why? Education systems prepares the future social class
orders, and the future of political power coming all from being more literate than the other.
Throughout this essay the author James Gee is discussing how over the years literacy has
enveloped this sense of high power and praise. Gee goes on to say the myth of being literate
gives power is not earned nor should it be valued. The literacy myth always has and still does
today, give people a higher political and social status over the illiterate.
A text, whether written on paper, or on the soul (Plato), or on the world (Freire), is a
loaded weapon. The person, the educator, who hands over the gun, hands over the bullets (the
perspective) and must own up to the consequences (Gee 61). Literacy in the hands of the
powerful is a very effective, and devastating tool. If history has taught us anything about how
leaders become powerful it is that being literate and able to formulate a sense of higher
intelligence is a big part of it. From the beginning of time, the people who spoke more eloquently
and were able to read, write, and understand text better than the rest, were put in positions of
power. Whether or not they were actually fit for that power. Gee throughout the text mentions
and orchestrates the opinions of others to further support his, he does a great job of mentioning
both sides of the argument. Whether in the case of Pluto where he believes literacy puts and

Franco 2
should put one into a position of power or whether he is agreeing with Freire in which literacy
should not automatically give power to a person.
Gee mentions Plato and how he felt one knew only what one could critically and
reflectively defend in face to face dialogue with someone else (48). Plato believed that written
language was not sufficient, because it was open to free interpretation. Which in many situations
would lead to arguments on the validity of the authors writing. Plato believed the author had the
authority to have the final word. Where the author could control and dictate the interpretation of
a text. Plato believed that literacy separated the higher-minded people from the lower, therefore
giving the higher society practically a secret language to operate from. If only the high social
class, and the elite were able to read and write, then they would easily be able to continue their
rule over the classes.
The most striking continuity in the history of literacy is the way in which literacy has
been used, in age after age, to solidify the social hierarchy, empower elites, and ensure
that people lower on the hierarchy accept the values, norms and beliefs of the elites, even
when it is not in their self-interest or group interest to do so (Gramsci 1971).
James Gee did not agree with Plato in the sense that the literate should automatically receive
positions of power in society, decision makers, or rulers of people. Gee believed that there
should be more to it then just being literate.
Another one of Gees points in this essay is that education does not automatically make
one a higher human being. Literacy comes from many more things than learning how to read and
write. Literacy comes from interactions between your social groups, and comes from religious
knowledge. Gee goes on to say that schooling does not always better a human, but rather it
has stressed behaviors and attitudes appropriate to good citizenship and moral behavior, largely

Franco 3
as these are perceived by the elites of the society (Gee 56). School is preparing the next
generation of elitists or societys higher ups, not necessarily literate people. The education
system isnt valuing education as much as it values the further domination of society by literate
people. Schooling throughout the world has prepared the next level elitists, but at the same time
has been preparing the lower social classes. Educating them from the beginning to automatically
be in the lower class, to follow, to always agree and think what the higher more literate class is
saying is ultimately correct. This is where the myth of literacy has become the most frightening,
from the beginning education has split the generations of humans into higher educated and
non educated.
Throughout the text, the argument of how being literate puts one into a higher social and
political class is discussed and supported. Gee mentions the opinions and beliefs of the very
intelligent and very well known, respected men throughout history. From the beliefs of Plato, to
19th century Sweden, and the opinions of 20th century scholar Freire, history has told us that
being more literate than the majority puts one into positions of power. Gee believes this a
horribly true fact, and believes the world should not exist like that, but recognizes that is how it
is.

Franco 4

Work Cited
Gee, James Paul. "Chapter 4." Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses.
Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2012