Ever since I was born, my mom did her best to make sure that my brother and I were literate as early as possible. In her mind, being literate meant that one wouldn’t have to depend on a kindergarten teacher to know what the ABCs and 123s are. So, armed with Facebook parenting advice, foam letters bought from Walmart, and the promise of self-reliance, she tried to teach us how to read at nine months old. Naturally, all of our family laughed at her for trying to teach us to read before we could even understand speech. According to research, nine-month-old kids can’t even recognize their dad’s face, let alone remember i before e except after c. However, her efforts weren’t in vain because the early strategy was working. By two years old, we were remembering hundreds of spellings from Word World and by three years old, according to my mother, we spelled hippopotamus correctly on the preschool floor. However, despite this initial push, I was never self-motivated to read. I always tried to blast through books or comprehension exercises. I feel like this disconnect with reading was highlighted by my first reading memory, one of the dullest memories I have.
My earliest reading memory is of me reading Berenstain Bears. At that time, I was probably around four years old, just doing random things before bedtime. I don’t remember much about the story itself. It, like most Berenstain Bears stories, was probably a moral story, thinly veiled by the main cast of tree-dwelling characters, Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Brother Bear, and Sister Bear. The story is usually like this: The kids have an issue. Then, Papa tries to fix it but makes it worse. Enter Mama Bear, who uses her perfectionism to fix the whole situation.
What I took away most from Berenstain Bears is the simplicity. For me as a little kid, having something that for the most part is predictable makes the book easier to read, and something easy to read gave me confidence in my reading abilities. It seemed that little me was happier to have the feeling of finishing a book easily than to have the feeling of reading something challenging, getting stuck, and learning something in the end.
This simplicity attitude continued well into elementary and middle school. Although my three-year-old literacy boost brought me to an advanced level compared to the rest of the kids, I still read easy books. One example is in fourth grade near the end of the year, when our standardized test scores came out. I was second in the class for reading comprehension, ahead of all my friends, but when we went to the library for reading time, my friends all picked out Rick Riordan books, while I picked out My Weird School Daze. Although my skills were better than my friends, I never challenged myself. Slowly, without me noticing, by the time I was in sixth or seventh grade, I realized that I was no longer on some literacy pedestal. I had become average or even below average in reading, and my writing skills were even worse. This all came to a head in Honors English 1 first semester, where I narrowly escaped getting a C, earning the wrath of my mom, the same person who taught me to read fourteen years prior.
From that point on, I decided to enhance my relationship with reading to improve my grades. I knew that I had to start somewhere, but I didn’t know where. On the recommendation of my grandmother, I started with Telugu news. She was closely looking at some of the news going on at the time and told me to follow it closely as well. I took up the challenge because I wanted to read more. I had to build literacy again, but this time in a different language. For example, I didn’t know basic words like aropana (accusation), vyatirekam (opposition), or jokyam (risk). I slowly started to jot down these words in a Google doc and improved my comprehension. I noticed that as I did this, I enhanced my reading skills in English as well by reading every word, gaining the main ideas out of every paragraph, and determining the meaning of words I didn’t know, skills transferable to any language.
When I was in 9th grade, I was unsure that I could regain my literacy. However, I finally feel like I have regained it a little bit. My grades have even improved, getting me As in English in 10th and 11th grade. With better reading, I hope to understand the world better, learn about diverse perspectives, and write better, but above all, I wish to become the self-reliant reader that my mom always hoped I would be.
Hello Deeraj! I appreciated the lighthearted yet reflective approach to your literacy narrative. On some levels, I had a similar experience with literacy, where I learned to read early which gave me a head start but my early enthusiasm and skill with reading plateaued. I liked how you acknowledged the struggles you have had in your reading journey, and how despite your young talents for reading you haven’t always been committed to learning as you are now. Additionally, I appreciated the excerpt in your piece about the Berenstein Bears and how that is representative of the simplicity in your journey with reading. However I feel that you could have elaborated further on how the structure of the Berenstein Bears might reflect your relationship with literacy. You stated that in the Berenstein Bears books, the kids have an issue which is worsened by the father and then eventually solved by the perfectionist mother. Based on other parts of your narrative, such as the early age that your mother taught you and your brother to read and your original relaxed approach to reading, I feel that you could elaborate on how the Bears family dynamic is represented throughout your (and your family’s) journey with literacy.
Hey Deeraj! This was a really fun piece to read and I found it really interesting how you’re story seemed to follow the structure of the hero’s journey combined with that of a comeback story. In the beginning, you refused the call to read that your mother had for you and that caused you to fall behind in classes once you finally came to terms with what you needed to do and decided to practice reading again you were able to catch back up and not only get A’s but realize the value of reading in your life. The way you structured your piece not only made it fun to read but also got me thinking about if I’ve perhaps been in a similar situation with reading where I’ve actually gotten worse at it because I have only read books that are easier to comprehend rather than expanding my horizons. Additionally, as a side note, I really liked reading about your experimentation in reading Telugu news and how it helped you. It’s a good reminder that reading can go beyond just thoughts on paper and can teach many things at once.
Hi Deeraj,
It’s fascinating to hear about your story, especially since it is something that I can definitely relate to. Usually, you never hear about people’s struggles, especially in literacy, just because it takes a sideline to other classes that are perceived as more important. The examples that you provide, while simple, do help illustrate your points, especially the “i before e except after c.” Honestly, you weaved in a lot of good points in your blog, like how people who are at the top of something won’t stay there without constant effort and work. It’s a really powerful story to see how you managed to see that you weren’t where you were at with reading, and then putting in the effort and dedication to climb back up. It would be interesting to hear more specifically about how learning Telugu improved your reading grades in school.