Literacy History Blog Assignment 1

My name is Rebecca Jean Baptiste. I am 31 years old and have a 6-year-old son. I am attending NJCU in pursuit of a degree in Sociology concentration in Crime and social behavior. I've always has an interest in working in criminal justice somehow. when I first began my career exploration, I wanted to be a police officer. My family was not at all supportive of that because they always thought of the worst that could happen. Additionally, coming from a Haitian household, I was always being pushed towards the medical field. I did not go to college until I was 21. I enrolled at Medgar Evers with the full intention of going for nursing, I quickly became a liberal arts major once I found out that less than 20% of the applicants were admitted to the program. I attended school on and off because I was working full time. I left discouraged when I was 24 because I started a new job and had my own place and needed to be able to support myself. In 2016, I moved to NJ with my son and enrolled at ECC. There, I decided to revisit my passion for criminal justice by choosing to have my mandatory internship at the Essex County Court. I interviewed for the internship and was accepted. While there, I applied for the civil service exam and passed the test landing me a position after graduation in 2019 at Hudson County superior Court in Jury Management. I took this class because it was part of my tier requirements but I'm actually glad because it is totally different than what I was expecting. I didn't think I would be writing a blog ever but here we are. I'm being forced out of my comfort zone, and I don’t hate it. 

Thinking about literacy, I can say that I have had to become literate 3 times. The first of course when I was first learning to read and write at home and in my first few years in school. The second was when I came to the U.S at the age of 9 and had to learn to speak read and write in English. The third was when I was learning to read write and speak Spanish. The person who helped me become literate the first time was my mom. She would read to me every day and encouraged me to write words daily. Even after school, my mom always wanted me to practice writing and reading. I was placed in afterschool programs to encourage more practice.

The second time was fully in school. When I started the 4^th grade here in the U.S my teachers played a crucial part in my academic success. I was in an ESL class for the first 6 months. Those teachers were so patient and kind that I did not become too frustrated and was able to take it all in and actually learn the language. The third time was when I was about 12. My mom watched a lot of Spanish soap operas. One day I was tinkering around with the buttons on the tv and found the closed captioning buttons and realized it could translate to English. From then on, I would watch the soaps with her in Spanish and was able to follow along by reading the English captions. This not only helped me learn to read and understand Spanish, but it also strengthened my English reading skills. I felt literate when I was able to read without strain and actually begin to enjoy the act of reading books. I would actually get in trouble in school for reading under the desk when other subjects were being taught. I would look forward to the time a year when the scholastic book fair would be held in the school library. I would save my allowance for months so I could buy books to read. I am doing my best to instill that love of reading in my son today.

I believe literacy is very important. When I was 18, I worked at the Brooklyn Public Library in the adult learning center. It was such a fulfilling job. Watching an adult read a full sentence and seeing how emotional and proud they got always warmed my heart and made me sad. A person does not have to be the best speller or have the biggest vocabulary, however, the ability to read and write should be a big priority. Not having that skill excludes you from so many things in life. For example, at my job, if a person is unable to read English, they are disqualified from serving as a juror. Being a juror is such a fundamental part of our democracy and losing the right to serve should be a big deal.