Determining Literacy

After reading about literacy and having a discussion in class, it makes me think about what people do to become literate these days and how people are judged based upon there literacy. When I read “The Elements of Literacy,” it talks about how our social class determines just how much literacy a person should have. People who are of the high class should be a lot more literate than those of the middle and lower classes. However, we all know that someone of a higher class isn’t always smarter or more literate than other classes because if you can read or write should not be based on how much your income is. Do standardized tests really measure our literacy either? If we base how good a person can read or write on a few tests that supposedly measure every aspect of a person’s literacy then we are being bias towards people who are gifted in different ways. I believe that our literacy shouldn’t be based on a few multiple choice tests that are given at the end of the year to see what they crammed in our heads during a semester.  We should take more practical tests that are actually based on real life instances where as the tests we are required to take are based on what they want us to learn even when we won’t ever need to know most of the stuff that is required by the “No Child Left Behind Act.” Everyone has different views of how they think literacy should be measured and tested but it’s common sense that no one should be judged on their literacy based on their social class or the way they are raised in a household.