This assignment entailed visiting a place in the community
that children frequent and observing the literacy skills necessary to get by in
such a place. The class went out in teams of 5, and my team went to Western
Skateland. In addition to each taking general not of the literary environment
around us, we each had a specific task: (a) Observe and record the physical
environment, (b) Observe and record the people and activities, (c) observe and
record bits of talk, (d) observe and record vocabulary, written and spoken,
that is unique to this place, and (e) gather and record evidence of literacy. After we each gathered individual data, we
discussed our impressions of the place and consolidated our data.
My job was to record the physical environment. As per the
recommendation on the assignment sheet, I drew a map of Western Skateland.
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Alongside this drawing, I want to illustrate the “feeling”
of Western Skateland. I hesitated at first to include this because I have been
taught that a good ethnographer removes herself from the situation so as not to
influence it. But I also know that it is impossible to truly remove myself, so
why not admit that I was one of the members of this environment for the time I
was there and analyze my own interactions. Western Skateland is a place for
easy, relaxed socializing. Most people came in groups (family or friends), but
often interacted with people outside their original group. Such was the case
with me; I came with my classmates, but spent some time skating with my martial
arts student Sam (not his real name) and his mom, and challenged Sam to a game
of Air Hockey (which I won by accident…). They patiently taught me to cross
over skate, which made it much easier to navigate the corners and encouraged me
as my body shakily remembered long-unused skills. I was also approached by an
old man who worked there simply because he was curious about our assignment and
wanted to help. He told me that he’d been skating since he was 4, about 6
decades! There was certainly some competition in the air, especially during the
games, but it was very easy-going and no one was overly excited or disappointed
by their wins or losses. A general feeling of friendliness and acceptance pervaded.
Literacy, both spoken and written, certainly played a role
in this environment. In some cases, it was assumed that the people present
would understand what was meant by skate in the “normal direction” or “select
your corners”. The latter was for the game “4 corners” and, as someone who had
more or less forgotten the rules, I can say that even without a cultural knowledge,
it was easy enough to follow along.
There were a few forms of written literacy, some particular
to this environment and others not. For example, the rules and warning signs
were specifically written for patrons of Western Skateland to read. One
particularly amusing (albeit somewhat frightening) sign was the one outside
that told parents not to abandon their children. I suppose, after some
consideration, it is sad that this sign was deemed necessary, but we did laugh
that such a message was explicitly written down rather than implied.
The concession stand was an example of a type of literacy
that extends beyond the rink. Children would likely have encountered concession
signs before and have the literacy knowledge to order their food/beverage and
pay for it. But it is important to remember that this still belongs to a
certain culture, a culture of sports games and consumerism. Other signs, such
as “Happy Birthday” and the “Ladies” and “Men” signs, are common across the US,
and even the English speaking world. I did, however, find it interesting that it
was neither “women” and “men” nor “ladies” and “gentlemen”, but rather “ladies”
and “men”. What does this say about the gender beliefs of this place?
Arcade games provided another example of written literacy,
although I doubt many children actually read the labels or instructions. In fact,
suspect this is true about much of the written literature of the place; if I
were not examining literacy for an assignment, I doubt I would have taken the
time to read the rules and warnings, the concessions I was not eating, and I
probably wouldn’t have noticed the difference between the game titles “Clean
Sweep” and “Smart Clean Sweep”.
A final example of literacy was the music. At first I was
annoyed that the loud music made it difficult for me to eavesdrop on
conversations, but then I realized that music is a form of oral literacy in
itself. Talking to the old man who worked there, I learned that there are
different playlists for different hours. For the late night sessions, they play
rap and hip hop, while the early night sessions are more family friendly pop
songs. It was interesting to notice, having learned this, that there were still
words bleeped out and even one song about a man taking his girl home and
watching her take off her little black dress. I guess they thought the children
wouldn’t listen to (or understand) the lyrics…
All in all, my impression of Western Skateland was that a
cultural literacy – spoken, written, and musical – did exist and would be very
helpful in navigating the time and space spent there, but standard “school”
literacy was not very prevalent. With the exception of a few warning signs that
nobody seemed to read except me and my fellow students, cultural literacy was enough
to get by.
