Brandt's essay was about sponssorship of literacy. However, his use of the word sponsors differs from what one would normally connect the deffiniton to. When I think of the word sponsor the pitty commericals that are asking for money to help support this and help support that come to my mind. "for only $1.00 you can sponsor this little girl and save her life. I think of the word sponsor in regards to giving or supporting something with a money or another type of donation. According to the dictionaries deffinition sponsor can also mean: Definition of SPONSOR
1
: one who presents a candidate for baptism or confirmation and undertakes responsibility for the person's religious education or spiritual welfare
2
: one who assumes responsibility for some other person or thing
1
: one who presents a candidate for baptism or confirmation and undertakes responsibility for the person's religious education or spiritual welfare
2
: one who assumes responsibility for some other person or thing
From merriam websters dictionary.
However Brandt's usage of the word sponsor is one that I've never really considered before. Brandt uses the word sponsor throughout his essay in referring to that of someone who teaches or shows a person something such as a skill. Normally we would refer to these people as teachers. Brandt refers to teachers, and parents or anyone who takes their knowledge of a subject and shares and educates another is considered to be a sponsor based on Brandts understanding.
I think its interesting that he considers teachers and such to be sponsors. I never really thought about them in that regrad but I guess in away they are sponsors. They're investing theyre time and knowlege into a person and bare the out come. Teacher's spend 8 hours a day sponsoring their students to make sure that they understand and know everything that they are required to. Parents sponsor their children for 18 years investing the facts and knowledge of life into them. I've never considered this point of view before but its really quite interesting to think about.
Heather:
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the author of the essay is female, Deborah Brandt. Second, while her definition does differ from the "standard" one, and you mention this, you do not really provide quite enough detail about Brandt's definition for me to really see how it is different. In other words, how are parents and teachers sponsors? And is this form of sponsorship different than, say, the dictionary? Don't parents and teachers "assume responsibility" for their children and students? So how is this sponsorship different? (In other words, I'm asking you to really closely read Brandt's definition here).