Literacy and Learning
Literacy means more than just being able to read and write. It’s about having the basic skills needed to understand written directions, fill out a job application or make sense of a daily newspaper. The national numbers for literacy-challenged adults are horrendous - and the numbers among youth are almost as bad. Learn more and help others find joy and satisfaction in reading!
Introduction
Literacy gives people the ability to use written information to complete goals and tasks. The inability to read, on the other hand, ripples out to affect many aspects of day to day life, including family relations, finances, citizenship, healthcare, and employment. While many people are able to hide the fact that they are functionally illiterate, it is a challenge that haunts them every day. Not being able to find a job because of one’s illiteracy is the biggest problem people face. However, according to the Ohio Literacy Resource Center there are an estimated 5 million American adults that have jobs and are still considered functionally illiterate. Just imagine the challenges they face!
Families with functionally illiterate adults often find it difficult to pass along a love or reading to their children, creating a second generation with reading problems. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is one of the many government programs aimed at improving children’s ability to read and apply reading skills to real life situations. NCLB represents a national attempt to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind. With an increase in immigration many children are still reading below their grade levels. The never-ending debate on bilingual schools combined with No Child Left Behind has made the education of many children extremely difficult.
Poverty is another issue strongly related to illiteracy. According to the Greater Hartford Literacy Council, almost half of the nation’s adults on welfare do not have a high school diploma or GED, and of those with the lowest literacy skills, 43% live in poverty.
Literacy Quiz- Check your knowledge of literacy. Take the following quiz.
Exploring Literacy on the Local Scene
There are five levels of adult literacy, level one being the lowest and level five the highest. The highest level includes task such as reading a table and summarizing information, while the lowest level includes tasks such as signing one’s name and identifying times and dates on forms. It is hard to believe that, according to the Greater Hartford Literacy Council (GHLC), about 300,000 adults in the Hartford area, roughly 41%, function at the two lowest literacy levels. The Greater Hartford Literacy Council has reported Hartford as having the lowest literacy level in Connecticut.
Hartford is just below the national average of 49% of adults in the two lowest levels of literacy. According to the GHLC, over 90 million adults in this country are at the two lowest levels of literacy, which is far below what is needed to earn a living wage.
From Local to Global
On the global level, literacy is improving but still remains a major problem. In 2000, according to UNESCO, the global illiteracy rate had fallen to 20.3% from 36.6% in 1970, and was estimated to drop to 15% by 2015. This improvement is most drastically seen in women, where illiteracy rates plunged from 44.6% to 25.8% over the same 30 year period, with a predicted drop to 19% by 2015. Women still make up more of the illiterate than men; about two-thirds of all illiterate adults worldwide are women, according to the CIA World Factbook.
The problem remains particularly grave in sub-Saharan Africa and some parts of Asia, especially south Asia and the Middle East. Illiteracy rates in these regions remain around a staggering 40%, though this has dropped significantly from the approximately 70% illiteracy rate of 1970. While the progress we see worldwide is fantastic, it remains unacceptable that so many millions are still unable to read and write.
Responding
Hands on Hartford offers many ways to get involved with the issue of literacy. Check the project calendar to find a service opportunity that fits your schedule and interest.
Resources
The above information was taken from the following sources. Click on the links
to learn more: Ohio Literacy Resource Center, No Child Left Behind,
Greater Hartford Literacy Council, UNESCO (Statistics, Literacy 2000), CIA World Factbook (World).
