RIP Joan Rivers. There is a literacy connection that some of us of a certain age may recall: Rivers served as the narrator for the Adventures of Letterman cartoons that used to run during the old 1970s PBS show, The Electric Company. The Electric Company was created to help elementary school-aged children children develop their grammar and reading skills—more or less grad school for the original Sesame Street generation.
Children’s Literacy
“You Don’t Have to Be Some Great Reader”
From today’s edition of POLITICO’s Morning Education:
HILLARY CLINTON REVISITS EARLY ED: Hillary Clinton told the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters last night that she would like to see the number of families the program serves “grow exponentially” in the coming years. Clinton spoke at the organization’s annual awards dinner. She touted the benefits of early education and the Clinton Foundation’s “Too Small to Fail” initiative, which encourages parents to read and talk to their children. A mother told Clinton recently that she couldn’t read very well. “I said ‘You’re talking to a 6-month-old. Just hold the book, tell a story, point to pictures,'” Clinton said. “You don’t have to be some great reader.’ (my emphasis)
I understand the well-intentioned point here: all parents, whatever their literacy level, can and should talk with their kids and introduce them to books and other printed materials. Which is fine, but the fact is, a parent’s poor literacy really can have a huge negative impact on the literacy development of their children.(See here, here, and especially here, for example). We should encourage individual parents with poor literacy skills to introduce books to their kids as best they can, but that doesn’t mean that parents with low literacy skills isn’t a problem. Suggesting otherwise will lead to unwise policy choices.
More on San Antonio’s Foolish Decision to Cut Its Adult Education Investment
The San Antonio Express-News has been doing a good job covering San Antonio’s shortsighted decision to close the city’s Community Learning Centers. Here’s the latest, from columnist Josh Brodesky:
The city that has made national news for its investment in pre-K education is getting out of the adult-ed biz.
“The city does not place a priority on adult literacy,” Carolyn Heath said. “Kids are cute. Adults have baggage. Adults are complicated. Its ugly. Its messy.”
For years, the city has operated adult learning centers. It would handle building operations and education providers would provide the teaching. The centers serve about 8,000 students a year.
But at the end of the year, the city is calling it quits. The move will save millions of dollars over the next two years, and potentially send thousands of students scrambling.
Of course, that two-year savings will end up costing the city much, much more in the long run, while simultaneously sabotaging it’s investment in early learning. It isn’t a question of priority—you have to do both.
International Literacy Day
(Updated Below)
Today is International Literacy Day, an annual observance aimed at focusing attention on the importance of literacy to individuals, communities, and societies around the world. According to new data released today by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), over 774 million adults on this planet do not know how to read or write (two-thirds of which are women), and roughly 123 million children not only lack basic literacy skills, but are often without access to any education at all.
According to UNESCO, on the basis of current trends, 743 million adults will still lack basic literacy skills in 2015, the deadline for the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.
September 8th was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO back in 1965, and first celebrated in 1966. In my experience it tends to get a bit more attention outside the Unites States, although there are events here in the U.S. as well.
Every year, for example, the International Reading Association (IRA) hosts an event marking the day in Washington, D.C. This year’s event, “Career Ready Reading: What Employers Need from Schools and How We Can Work Together,” focuses on the connection between reading skills and career-readiness. This event reflects the IRA’s theme for this year’s ILD: “Invent Your Future,” aimed at highlighting “the crucial literacy skills that prime students for success in school, work, and life.”
UNESCO also picks a theme for each year’s celebration. This year’s theme is “literacies for the 21st century.” According to UNESCO, this means highlighting the need for not only basic literacy skills, but the need to “equip everyone with more advanced literacy skills as part of lifelong learning.”
In his International Literacy Day message, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “In our knowledge-based era, literacy is a foundation for a more just, inclusive and sustainable world.”
Here are some additional ILD links you may find of interest:
- To illustrate the disparities in adult and youth literacy rates, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics has created an interactive map with literacy statistics from 150 countries and territories, including literacy rates by sex and the correlation with national wealth. UNESCO has produced a huge ILD 2013 infographic (click on the thumbnail on the right for the full version) that highlights these statistics.
- UNESCO is also hosting a colloquium in Paris tomorrow and Tuesday, entitled, “Advancing towards a Literate Twenty-first Century.” According to UNESCO, the colloquium will discuss the idea of a Global Coalition, a multi-stakeholder Partnership for advancing a literacy agenda proposed to be launched in November.
- “On International Literacy Day, Let’s Remember the Children Who Don’t Have a Chance to Read” — blog post by Alice Albright, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education.
- “What Literacy has Done for Us” — article from the Norwegian Refugee Council.
- Editorial in the Gaston County N.C. Gazette.
- Editorial in the Times-News (Alamance County, N.C.) — “Raising literacy in the community raises us all.”
- Editorial in Davidson County, N.C. Dispatch.
- Three ways to celebrate International Literacy Day today — ChicagoNow
- Free admission to any Florida state park today for anyone who presents a valid library card, a book checked out from the library, or donates a new or used, family friendly book!
- Editorial in the Daily Star (Bangladesh)
- Pakistan will celebrate the International Literacy Day 2013 with a three-day nationwide campaign to enrol at least 500,000 out-of-school children. More on ILD in Pakistan Today. Meanwhile, The U.S. has announced the launch of a new $160 million dollar Pakistan Reading Project to boost the reading skills of 3.2 million Pakistani children.
- Statement from Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Cares.
- Here is a story about an ILD event at the U.N.’s office in Armenia. And here is one about a similar event in Azerbaijan.
- Speaking at the International Literacy Day celebration held in New Delhi, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee called for achieving a literacy rate in India that is “at par with leading countries in the world.”
- Here’s a post I wrote last year on ILD 2012.
And remember, in the immortal words of Krusty: “Give a hoot, read a book.”
UPDATE 9/17/13: Here are some more links to ILD 2013 activities and announcements from around the world that I’ve come across since my original post:
- Education greatest equaliser – Helmut Angula (Namibia)
- Zambezi observes literacy week (Namibia)
- Making adult literacy learning sustainable in rural areas – an interesting article by Sarah Hasaba, former UNU Institute for Sustainability and Peace researcher, that looks at adult literacy learning programs operating within rural communities in Uganda, Kenya and Vietnam.
Literacy & Policy 