LearningTip #17:
Celebrate Literacy
On International Literacy Day
And Pass it On!

By Joyce Melton Pagés, Ed.D.
Mother of two children, President of KidBibs

Imagine, for one minute...
that you cannot read the note that your child's teacher has sent from school
AND
you cannot read the directions on your child's medicine bottle
AND
you cannot read the job application that was just handed to you
AND
you cannot read the road signs in an unfamiliar area.

Imagine how helpless and dependent you would feel if you had to request help EVERY TIME you had to read something.  Imagine how discouraged you would feel if you had to make excuses for needing the help.

Literacy affects every aspect of a person's life. 
So does illiteracy.

Illiteracy	affects the person's health.
Illiteracy	affects the person's safety.
Illiteracy	affects the person's ability to get a job and keep it.
Illiteracy	affects the person's options.
Illiteracy	affects the person's choices.
Illiteracy	affects the person's wage earning ability.
Illiteracy	affects the person's ability to adjust to change.

Further, illiteracy does not just affect that person. It affects....
the person's children and other family members,
those who drive the streets and highways that they travel,
those who pay taxes (for welfare, prisons, crime losses),
etc.
Yes, illiteracy affects all of us.

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FACTS ABOUT ILLITERACY

So, what are the facts about illiteracy?  How many American adults suffer from limited literacy?  What are their characteristics? 

To answer these questions, the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics conducted the National Adult Literacy Survey in 1992.  In this study 13,600 American adults were interviewed and asked to respond to literacy tasks in three categories:  prose literacy, document literacy, and quantitative literacy.   Their performance on each task was classified as Level 1 (lowest level), Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 (highest level).  On the prose literacy tasks, 21% of the adults tested at Level 1, the lowest, most rudimentary level.  Generalized to the American population, 40 million adults (of the 191 million adults) can be estimated to be functioning at the lowest level of literacy.  An additional 27% (generalized to an estimated 52 million adults) are functioning at Level 2.  Performance on the document literacy and quantitative literacy tasks was comparable. 

So, what are the characteristics of the adults who had difficulty with these literacy tasks? 

• Sixty-two percent of those scoring at the lowest level had terminated their education before completing high school.   Adults with relatively few years of education were more likely to perform in the lower literacy levels than those who completed high school or received some type of postsecondary education.

• Thirty-four percent of the adults scoring at the lowest level were age 65 or older.  These older Americans were more likely than middle-aged (55-65) and younger adults to demonstrate limited literacy skills. 

• Twenty-six percent of adults performing at the lowest level reported having a physical, mental, or other health condition that kept them from participating fully in work or other activities.

• Twenty-five percent of the respondents who performed at this lowest level were immigrants who may have been just learning to speak English.

• Nineteen percent of the Level 1 performers reported having visual difficulties that affect their ability to read print.

• Seventy percent of inmates in American prisons scored in the two lowest literacy levels.

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More ResearchBits:

• Almost 50% of adults on welfare do not have a high school diploma or GED.

• Welfare recipients with low education skills stay on welfare the longest; those with stronger education skills become self-sufficient more quickly.

• American businesses are estimated to lose over $60 billion in productivity each year due to employees' lack of basic skills.

• Children of parents who are unemployed and have not completed high school are five times more likely to drop out than children of employed parents.

• Children's literacy levels are strongly linked to the educational level of their parents, especially their mothers.

• As the education level of adults improves, so does their children's success in school.  Helping low-literate adults improve their basic skills has a direct and measurable impact on both the education and quality of life of their children.

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The National Literacy Act defines literacy as "an individual's ability to read, write, and speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one's goals, and develop one's knowledge and potential."

Celebrate Literacy
and ask the questions...

What can I do to help?

The answer might be:

Suggest that a low-literate friend or relative seek reading assistance at the local library.
OR
Support your community library.  Visit often and donate what you can.
OR
Tutor an adult in reading at the local library.
OR
Provide a literate environment which supports your child's language and literacy development. 
OR
Be a lifelong learner.  Let your children/students see that joy that you get from reading and learning something new!
OR
Turn children on to reading and writing! Help them make reading and writing habits that they will choose to use to enrich their lives forever.
OR
Use children's books to help your child respect and appreciate literacy.   These books can also be used to help your child understand the limited literacy of a friend or relative.  The books featured in the KidBibs Virtual Bookstore (at the beginning of this article) are children's books about literacy.
OR
Get involved in your child's schooling; the child's parent is his/her first, most important teacher!
OR
Visit KidBibs and other literacy related web sites; some are featured in this month's KidBibs SuperSites section. Use KidBibs LearningTips features to learn more about reading and writing instruction.  Articles over the next few weeks will include strategies for teaching phonics, writing, and textbook reading.  Also, watch for new KidBibs features!
OR
If you're a teacher or a homeschooling parent, read journals and attend conferences to learn about new instructional strategies and resources.  Provide instruction that meets the language and literacy learning needs of the children that you teach.

No matter how you define your role,
if you help someone learn to read,
you are changing their life!
So...

Celebrate Literacy
and
Pass It On!