POPDB is pleased to host Scott Mallinson, a deafblind writer, as a guest blogger on various topics related to literacy. This is Scott's last post. We hope you have enjoyed Scott's posts as much as we have.
Feel free to go back and read Scott's March, April, and May posts. If you would like to read more of Scott’s writing, check out his blog, Happiness is for Everyone.
In a previous post I said that I didn’t realize books could be for entertainment. I want to share a fun story. When I was younger my parents would read to me at night. I don’t know if you know the “Captain Awesome” book series by Stan Kirby. My parents read many books to me from this series. At this age I was trying to understand information in books that I did not remember happening to me. I was starting to realize that books were more than Experience Books, but I was still trying to put the concept together. I had not yet figured out that books could just be pure entertainment. I had an idea that perhaps these books were stories of future events, and I thought my parents wanted me to become Captain Awesome. I dressed as Captain Awesome for Literacy Day at school. I loved that I became the character I was reading about, and it proved to me that I might be correct about my assumption that books could also be portraying future events. After Literacy Day I would continually ask to wear the Captain Awesome hat and sweater so I could be how I thought my parents wanted me to be: Captain Scott Awesome! I believe this is why I use the word awesome all the time to this day.
I am so thankful my parents never stopped reading to me. I may not have understood what the book meant, and in some cases I totally misunderstood it, but the time spent with them was perfect. I felt like I was sharing something with them. It also helped me learn. I miss those moments. My mom still reads with me, but I am older and it is not the same. I also have different tastes in books and so we don’t always read together. I am hoping that my posts on literacy have given some perspective on different types of learning. Keep at it, keep teaching, keep believing. My world is better because of the efforts of so many who believed literacy was important for me. They were right!