Wider Angle on Literacy Lens?

I was uncertain what would happen with my literacy lens when I retired. And while it has not been that long, I can already see that it is hard to keep focused on one topic for long. Or maybe it is the same topic, but with a wider lens. After all, there is a whole world out there!

Perhaps in some ways that is the purpose of work (and study). Creating places where people are paid to concentrate on specific topics, to really focus, for long periods of time. To encourage people to expand their knowledge related to certain issues, to build networks, to share ideas and encourage ‘best practice” in the field. And if the field happens to be literacy, practitioners are theoretically able to keep the literacy lens wide open, accepting light and dark from “out there”, and responding with pictures, words, practice, and thought that reflect what is coming in.

It is here that I have to say we are lucky in British Columbia to have a field of dedicated literacy practitioners ready to learn, debate and challenge current literacy policies and practices. Right now, that field is as big and as diverse as it has ever been, and, on a per person basis (I am guessing here) the least funded. But the good news is that a lot of us are paid, for some amount of time, to use a literacy lens. And that the “life experience lens” that came with us to this field is different for each of us. (See how easy it is for me to include myself here?) It is a rich time to share ideas and think things through. I just hope you are not all too busy doing the work to partake with colleagues, mentors, networks, or forums and blogs.

While I think my literacy lens is changing angles, stepping back from the practitioner role, my blog head is carrying forth ranting in my brain to me alone. There are so many things to look at and discuss! Wider, rosy and otherwise. Another blog?? Seems self-serving. I’ll let you know if bloghead gets her way.

In the meantime, Anne and I and others, I hope, will keep discussion open-ish!