The title of this post may be a bit misleading, but I am referring to the emotional purpose of “cheering” and not girls in skirts flipping and jumping and exerting their athleticism which makes me tired just to thinking about.
When t comes to literacy, I am trained well. I’ve had excellent cheerleaders and their chants spoke well to me throughout they years, motivating me to read assigned texts for class and write papers on subject that I could honestly care less about (shoutout to my unnamed teacher who assigned me the essay topic of “flamingos”). My parents expectations, the grades I would receive from my teacher, and pressure to compete with my peers is what motivated me to do well and subscribe to this definition of literacy, but as i become aware of this I take a look at those who were not motivated by the same halftime rallies as myself.
The first example that comes to mind is my boyfriend. His GPA suggest unintelligence, but the true reason was he was unmotivated through high school. He could answer questions if the material was taught in class, but didn’t feel the pressure of grades as a reason to change his ways or even fear of his parents’ wrath. Now, he’s in college and everything has completely changed. Having the opportunity to study what he enjoys (it’s engineering) gives him the intrigue and motivation to excel in class.
There is no fairness in judging every individual on the same scale. Each person is motivated by different reasons or subjects and no one person can excel in everything. The literary journey is about experiencing all of the facets of becoming literate and finding the cheer that motivates literacy to work in your life.
