Literacy of course encompasses reading and writing. In this graduate program, I've been happy to find that all of the courses that I've taken in some way touch on how literacy is acquired. What factors influence acquisition? How do you study those factors? How are those factors influenced by culture? Pondering these types of questions has, I believe, made me a better writing teacher. The students where I teach are mostly first generation college students. Some come from underprivileged backgrounds. Some come from oral cultures. The ways that I've been asked to consider literacy in my courses here at IUP have made me question why western-based pedagogy is so highly foregrounded in the academy. It would seem that in an institution that encourages knowledge expansion, it would be routine to ask undergraduates to approach literacy not only from a western tradition, but from eastern and indigenous traditions as well.