Philippine Literacy in the Pre-Spanish Era - Position Paper free essay sample

Philippine Literacy in the Pre-Spanish Era Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write common symbols. Literacy used to be a very simple idea that only involves a person’s ability or skill to read and write his/ her country’s writing system. Today, literacy has been intertwined into many different aspects and has been branded by the evolving society as having the competence to progress continuously with globalization. Through time literacy has branched out numerously and somehow acquired a criterion that people should live up to, for them to be considered literate. Workplace literacy is having the skill to perform and understand symbols and ideas like reports, graphs, and instructions. Critical literacy means knowing how to apply one’s skill for improvements, and sometimes prevention in different aspect of life; and to be computer literate one has to know how to navigate and perform computer commands (Morgan, Walter Morgan 1999). We will write a custom essay sample on Philippine Literacy in the Pre-Spanish Era Position Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The English language is also viewed as one factor that affects a person’s literacy because it is a common language used all over the world. It is very often that non-native speakers of English study it to become their second language. Global organizations, Governments and businesses use English to communicate information, campaigns and business deals. In the Philippines, English in an important factor in achieving a successful and comfortable life (Wikipedia: English Language 2012). To quote the Wikipedia it says: â€Å"Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print. Key to all literacy is reading development, which involves a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text. (Wikipedia: Literacy 2012) Evidently, literacy has developed levels that are considered to be the standard in our society. Despite the society’s views on literacy and how important it clearly is in the progression of individuals, I still believe that it is important for citizens to value their ancestral culture and norms, and in the Philippine setting this includes the ancient writing which has been alienated for many years. Filipino ancient writing was unlike many countries. Ancient Filipinos wrote for pleasure, to communicate and to create literature. The first time that the Spaniards came in the Philippines they did not find any kind of writings, what they did not discover early on was that Filipinos wrote on bamboos and leaves. In an account by Fr. Juan Francisco de San Antonio in 1735 he said: â€Å"up to the present time there has not been found a scrap of writing relating to religion, ceremonies, or ancient political institutions†. Ancient Filipinos were not considered about politics and sciences; they were simply enjoying the pleasure of writing. To spread Christianity, the Spaniards published Doctrina Christiana in Tagalog Script. We already know what happened next, Christianity spread and the Spaniards took over the Philippine Islands. On the site I read, a couple of theories were provided on how the Tagalog script has become extinct, and mostly involves the Spaniards influence and authority over the Filipinos. It may have been the burning of the scripts, imposition of rules by the Spaniards or it could simply be because of the evolution brought about by conquerors, but the main point is, the Filipinos developed new languages from diverse influences and eventually drifted away from its own ancient language. (Santos, 1996) Ancient Filipino script may now be completely irrelevant to literacy based on how the society views literate citizens. However, it is important to emphasize the value of traditional writing to Filipinos. Knowing where we came from promotes a sense of nationalism and may increase a person’s level of self-view. Most people feel inferior when they are unable to perform certain skills or speak fluently in English or Tagalog, but if we start altering our mindset into thinking that each Filipino dialect is as good as Tagalog or English, we might have a chance at helping each other grow as Filipino citizens.