Literacy
A Forever Gift
An article by Larissa Phillips announced today that, “A Fifth of American Adults Can’t Read.48 million adults in the U.S. read at or below the third-grade level. To understand why reading education is such a mess, we have to go back a hundred years. Before the Progressive Era, students were taught to read via the phonetic code; they learned that letters on a page represent sounds, and that sounds can be blended together to make words. The genius of this method is that it allows you to read any word, even Italian ones or nonsense ones in Dr. Seuss’s books. But the academic innovators of the 20th century considered this method dry, and they started coming up with new methods. Instead of bothering with the dreary task of learning the phonetic code, they suggested, students could jump right into the joy of reading by just memorizing whole words.”
When I think about the state of reading in this country, I feel sad. I cannot count the number of people who went to top schools and who do not read or write except when they have to for work. If I had not loved reading, I would not have ventured to try writing. Now I love both, but I was fortunate to have generations of readers in my family, and I had adults who enjoyed reading to me when I was small. As an author now, I need readers, and because reading helps the brain and the development of new perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and skills, I encourage people to read.
I taught in public school K-8 classes when the school system I worked in dropped phonics. Experienced teachers knew this was a mistake. The tenured teachers refused to stop using phonics instruction, but generations of students who did not have phonics lessons with other instructors could not sound out words or read fluently. New teachers and older teachers not sold on the process of phonics moved away from using that solid literacy foundation. Children still enjoyed listening to animated reading by teachers, but they lost the power to read on their own.
When a student from Panama with about three spoken English words joined my largest fifth-grade class, I bought a set of Hooked on Phonics for her to use. She sat next to other students, and they read together, turning the pages when the little audible signal came to turn a page, until she was comfortable reading alone with the series of books that had sound, images, and text.
In one school year, she read at a third-grade level. Side by side practice with someone else, interesting colorful materials, and a method proven to help people read everything from the old King James Bible vocabulary to modern portmanteau can help adults learn to read. (For those of you who like to know ‘the rest of a story,’ this student went to college and has a people-oriented career.)
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Some people think using children’s simple stories is an insult to older learners, but that is wrong on many levels. The brain of a reader has developed from simple story levels to complicated materials. Even the silliest story for a child has messages about words and ideas, life and culture.
In many of the college classes I teach, I have students from other countries. One project I like to assign requires them to read at least 7 children’s books by different authors and analyze those books for subtle messages about the culture. I have also used this assignment with middle school and high school students, native born English speakers and immigrants from dozens of different countries.
Every book written for a child also teaches something about the values and expectations of a culture. Some of my former elementary school students are now published authors contributing to wonderful reading experiences.
If you care to help children, teens, or adults learn to read, what can you do? Check with your local library or community colleges and see if they need help with literacy tutors. In many communities, learners also ask for help at adult centers or churches. If your community has an International Ministry that helps immigrants, they probably would love to have more mentors and tutors. There are also literacy programs online. A caring reading tutor can make a forever difference in a person’s life.
Kofi Annan said, “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics, and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity.” Our world needs more bridge building, more building of skills that develop hope and options for people, more literacy for learning and sharing, more enjoyment in positive messages. If we can help others learn to read, to find paths to hope and life choices through reading, that gift will last in their life forever.
