English as a Scripted Language

Daniels and Zemelman (2003/04) ask a key question—especially as we consider the Corporate Script that influences tremendously how we address literacy in the classroom: U.S. textbooks are jammed with facts, lists, charts, information, photographs, places, dates, formulas, problems, sidebars, study questions, and still more study questions. And much of it is carefully aligned with hundreds of local, state, or national standards. Is that why textbooks hold a seemingly unassailable place in our classroom practice—and in school budgets? What exactly are the benefits of these ubiquitous and potentially injurious objects? What are students risking their backs for? (p. 36)

While separating completely the Bureaucratic and Corporate Scripts proves to be difficult, here I will explore how private corporations and capitalistic assumptions profoundly impact both how we view and how we teach literacy—fueled heavily by the rising power of the Bureaucratic Script in the form of accountability standards and high-stakes testing. Literacy is impacted directly by publishers of textbooks and teacher-support materials, by test-preparation companies, and by the ever-growing assumption that students need greater technology in order to learn.