Literacy in Amazonian Peru

Abstract

The author worked in the rural community of San Pedro for a summer as an elementary school teacher. She reflects on the unequal distribution of literacy education throughout the country, especially in the Amazon region. The author asks "What is the goal of literacy? Should literacy be a tool used only to leave the rural lifestyle behind?" She states that literacy can also strengthen identity and improve the community through grassroots mobilization, and reflects on philosopher Paulo Freire’s statement that "In fact those who, in learning to read and write, come to a new awareness of selfhood and begin to look critically at the social situation in which they find themselves, often take the initiative in acting to transform the society that has denied them this opportunity of participation. Education is once again a subversive force." The emergence and pervasiveness of the global market makes education all the more important since it promises to liberate and empower people and communities.