Illiteracy isn't a new problem. It's been with us forever and, until WWII and the Sputnik era, was no serious barrier to employment. Why now? Well, about 40% of children entering kindergarten will have difficulty learning to read. 25% will have serious difficulties to the point of becoming illiterate adults. 15% will read poorly at only marginal literacy levels. The difference between then and now is in the costs of illiteracy. Until about the mid-20th century manual labor paid enough to raise a family. Today inability to read a service manual or decipher a pay stub means serious lifetime limitations on employability even at manual labor and total inability to rise above poverty levels of employment.
Should we blame illiteracy on teaching failures? No. Until WWII and Sputnik, nobody cared simply because illiteracy was affordable. Now, however, because illiteracy is a root cause of extreme poverty, illiteracy is very expensive. Preventing illiteracy is parent-friendly and inexpensive. We know the differences between children who learn to read well and those who don't are the differences between children who were read to as infants and those who weren't.
How can this be? Well, here's the short version: The 40% of 5-year olds who enter school behind the curve strongly tend to stay at the back of the line for their entire school career. Pupils who are 1 year behind stay about a year behind; those 2-3 years behind the curve stay at least 2-3 years behind. "At least?" you ask. Yes! Those children most in deficit tend to lag further and further behind those ahead of the norm because their large deficits are all in the skill of reading, an obvious requirement for an education.
How did the 60% who are ahead of the curve get there? The Kennewick School people in Kennewick, Washington researched the question and discovered the children who became good readers were all children who had been read to daily from birth until they became established in school. That's all. The good readers were exposed to words and sentences and stories every day for 20 minutes or more. The total exposure by kindergarten time was over 600 hours of increasing familiarity with the black squiggles on the pages of books. These children came to school with what are called pre-literacy skills which ennabled them to hit the ground running when formal reading instruction started
So much for illiteracy's roots. Unfortunately, illiteracy's spreading branches are pretty important too. The fallout from illiteracy extends well beyond the individual and the present generation. Without a literate work force a community slowly dies for lack of new business investment. Without healthy commercial activity, there are few openings for new, young workers regardless of their literacy levels. New capital is not invested in the community, young families, often called new customers, are not attracted to the area. Literate adults with jobs support the illiterate ones who can't work through welfare levies. The children of literate families build their lives in places where literacy is appreciated and well paid. The non-literate perpetuate the problems by raising children who are at best only marginally employable.
Poverty is the life partner of illiteracy and marginal illiteracy. It's a stubborn problem. Like any incurable disorder, illiteracy affects every aspect of life for an entire life. It's been long believed that poverty causes illiteracy. The hard truth is that illiteracy, inability or merely even difficulty in reading or writing, creates poverty. If one is not a skilled reader, education gets further and further into the distance, the child becomes more and more discouraged; turned off by what the child realizes he/she can never understand. Without high level reading skills, the child's life potential is contained within a small circle that never gets bigger, can only shrink with time. For those who cannot read well it's hamburger-work-for-hamburger-pay or else life on the streets where the pay is perhaps better but life is shorter and nastier.
LAMPLIGHTERS helps you get your baby ahead of the education curve and ready to learn. We invite you to examine our website or contact us for reliable, how-to information that assures better education -more childhood literacy-for a child.
Read Part 2:
The Buck Stopped Here
