The commodification of literacy is only one element in the general commodification of education. Students do not learn to think; at best, they learn to do the work as assigned and to give the answers desired. What is needed is a different form of reading and a different form of learning, a form that tends toward conflict rather than acceptance, toward a critical view rather than an accommodating one.
There is ample opportunity in the educational process to develop the role of critical thinking, though too often this opportunity is ignored. Michaels describes a learning process in literacy that involves the direct participation of first graders doing what they do best at that age--telling stories and thus making use of their already developed conversational skills. This is a fine opportunity to develop critical thinking about these stories and about the stories of others, and what can thus be developed for and applied to the "text" of these sorties can then be applied to the "text" of books and the subject matter of every class. The text in neither case should be seen as sacrosanct, and instead it should lead to a critical mode of thought that questions the text. This is the role of the school. Too often, the school indulges in bitting, in the division of knowledge into separated bits, rather than texting, or seeing the text as dynamic and as an element in the larger world of knowledge to which it is connected. Texting fits more with education for civility, with the understanding that learning is a social activity and not an isolated act.
As can be seen by the conclusion to unit 10, literacy is one element that stands in different relations to different individuals and social classes and thus is not the same to all people. It is not the only element in human society to have this quality, for many aspects of culture have different meaning to different social groups within the larger society. The issue here is literacy...