Shared Decision-making Increases Need for Greater Health Literacy

/ The Old Crank

Another study on the relationship between health literacy and health outcomes:

“Limited health literacy is a significant problem in our patients, and why this is so important is because we have moved so far from paternalistic medicine to an approach that is all about shared decision making,” Tormey said, which increases the health literacy burden on the patient. “Most patients, if you look at studies, will say they have limited literacy, that they want to be involved, that they want to be engaged, but they have more barriers to doing so, and they interpret communication differently than patients with adequate health literacy. So we really need to be able to develop tools that can engage these patients and make them feel supported as they embark on these kind of decisions.”

“A Lot of Them Live the Way They Live Because No One Has Yet Shown Them a Better Way”

/ The Old Crank / 1 Comment

This article by Bella English in the Boston Globe about Ismail Abdurrashid, lead instructor for the College Connections program at College Bound Dorchester, Mass., is good reminder of who and what really matters in our field. I’m guessing Abdurrashid has never read a single WIOA regulation…

Adult Literacy and Fertility Rates

/ The Old Crank

Last month I attended the ICAE World Assembly, which, among other things, served as helpful reminder that in most countries outside the United States improving literacy is usually associated with a larger array of public policy goals than than just those associated with employment.

Recently I came across this article, in which a writer from India visits Sri Lanka and wonders why that country “has delivered so much more for its citizens than India has been able to.” The answer:

So why has Sri Lanka been able to control its population in a way that India simply has not been able to? Economists believe that there is a direct relationship between women’s literacy rates and the number of children they have.

A study conducted by the Registrar General of India and the East-West Population Institute noted that: “The states in which female literacy rates are high, fertility rates typically are low. In those states that have low fertility rates, child mortality rates are also low.” Not only are overall female literacy rates for India way behind Sri Lanka (we are at 66% vs their 90%) but the situation is especially bad in the northern and western Indian states (literacy rates well below 60%). Interestingly, southern Indian states like Kerala (92%) and Tamil Nadu (74%) have female literacy rates and fertility rates closer to Sri Lanka’s than to northern India’s.

“Neurodiversity” Activists: Dyslexia Shouldn’t Be Viewed as “a Scourge to Be Eradicated”

/ The Old Crank

Interesting article in the Post yesterday about a growing movement among the autistic community to reframe autism as a difference, not a disability. Not just autism, but other “brain afflictions” as well:

Whitney is part of a growing movement of autistic adults who are finding a sense of community, identity and purpose in a diagnosis that most people greet with dread. These “neurodiversity” activists contend that autism — and other brain afflictions such as dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — ought to be treated not as a scourge to be eradicated but rather as a difference to be understood and accepted. (my emphasis)

Which raises this question (in my mind, at least): Should adult education policy be oriented more around “fixing” (for lack of a better word) adults with dyslexia or on improving the quality of life for people living with this condition? Technology is making it increasingly easier to access information without the necessity of reading text (at least in the traditional way), so I think this is an especially relevant question for educational technology proponents to grapple with.