What is literacy?

Massive question!  

Different people have different interpretations of this from simply being able to read and write, to being educated, to being proficient in a language,  to derive and convey meaning by using knowledge to reach a desired purpose by use of language skills, whether it be spoken or written.

For me it means the ability to understand, interpret, process, and respond.  I feel this can be applied to any context, in any country, in any language and the degree of this ability can be applied at any given level.

Here is a clip with many quotes and definitions, some are obvious, some make you think, and you may disagree with some of them. It tries to show and define literacy and illiteracy. What problems are connect to illiteracy and what are the benefits by eliminating illiteracy.

Literacy is everywhere and effects people in different ways; it can bring people together and cause problems. As gee stated ‘whether literacy can be used as a tool for liberation or are we endlessly trapped in replicating the given social stays quo through enticing the social practices that instantiate this?’

Does literacy keep classes apart? And maintain the social status and keep people in their place or can it bring us all together to all function together in our communities?

Here’s another clip of literacy in our community? Could it really be this perfect?