"What does literacy look like in my community--and why should I care?"

All around Bloomington Indiana there is an enormous amount of culture, art, festivities, and great examples of literacy. For instance, there is a great local library, the Monroe county library, that offers a huge selection of books, especially children's. This library is unique because there are even cute bear statues that are outside for children to pet! Another great example, "The Flying V'" is the metal guitar collage that is located at Garage Band. This guitar has some words all throughout the design, and would be a great activity to have a child try to find as many words as they could from the recycled street signs and license plates while at the same time viewing some pretty amazing artwork! There is also the Monroe county history museum that has a history library included! Some other examples of literacy around our community is simply taking a stroll down Kirkwood avenue. There are so many examples of literacy, from the shop signs, city street signs, and even to the fabulous up-coming events posters in front of the Buskirk-Chumley theater. While you're taking a leisurely walk down Kirkwood, stop by the B-line trail and one can see the mural that was painted by children from Guatemala and the U.S. On this mural, one can find many words throughout describing the pictures and also a nice quote that states "worlds apart, always connected."There is also the daily newspaper, the Herald Times, that let's us keep up on what's going on in the world and our community. The local university, Indiana University, of course has an unbelievable amount of literacy that includes several libraries on campus. Wonderlab is also a great place for children to explore science while also reading exhibit descriptions!
Now is the important question, why should we care? I would like to present a few quotes from the book by Robert M. Pirsig Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:


“The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.” 

“Care and Quality are internal and external aspects of the same thing. A person who sees Quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what he sees and does is a person who’s bound to have some characteristic of quality.”

“The more you read, the more you calm down.”

“The more you look, the more you see.” 

Reflecting on those quotes I have listed, there are several reasons why we should care about literacy. First, when we truly care about something, we are caring about the essence of something thus we are caring about having knowledge of reading and writing. Meaning is everywhere, in our entire community. People take pride in their community, that is why we have libraries, universities, art work, murals and so forth. When we are making meaning with words, we are trying to make meaning of our world. Having knowledge of these things are important.. People want to learn to read and write, so we can then take pride in our accomplishments. And because one must start with him or herself to improve the world, literacy is a start to improving the world, and we see that everyday in our community, states, country and world. It's all around us, if we just look.