Abstract
The opposite of concrete. This article is partly an autobiographical reflection on the cultural, educational and linguistic influences that have shaped the author's understanding of literacy development and the ability of language to create normative ways of seeing the world. ‘How do words influence our ways of seeing, thinking and being?’ is a guiding question throughout the piece. Drawing from the work of Ivan Illich, Erving Goffman and Edgar Friedenberg, this article suggests that schools are more concerned with institutionalizing knowledge and reproducing the power structures that govern our social exchanges than they are with education. The writing style and tone differ in structure and timbre from what is considered to be traditional in most academic forums – and all that jazz.