Literacy and Crime

I think a lot about literacy. In part, perhaps, because I am a writer and would like it if there were still readers around to read what writers write. 

I also think about it because of what I remember about how being able to read opens people's minds, enables them to engage ideas that ennoble them. 

About a half century ago I heard a man speak about Literacy Evangelism. His organization would go to villages and teach people how to read. The stories he shared about how much their self-worth increased never left me. "I am not just a beast or animal. I can read." The impact was profound.

These thoughts were re-awakened in me by Neil Gaiman's Art Matters and Other Insights for Writers. Early in the book he shares the importance of reading and how it makes us better people. He warns against trying to force books on our kids. If they are reading, that is good. If they develop a love of reading, that is great.

At one point Gaiman shared that politicians calculated how many prisons to build based on how many illiterate young people there were. Even if that is a myth, it's apparent that there is a direct correlation between literacy and living a successful life. (I could share a Michener anecdote here, but will save it until you ask.)

All this to say that our education has been failing our children and literacy rates have been dropping. How have we lost our way? How can we get it back? 

What follows are some stats about the relationship between incarceration and low literacy from literacymidsouth.org:

85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally low-literate

Juvenile incarceration reduces the probability of high school completion and increases the probability of incarceration later in life.

High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely that high school grads to be arrested in their lifetime.

High school dropouts are 63% more likely to be incarcerated than their peers with four-year college degrees.

Mississippi has the second highest incarceration rate in the nation. The average adult inmate reads on a sixth-grade level when admitted. Half of the state's inmates never finished high school.

The same article cites this disconcerting stat by Donald Hernandez in his book Double Jeopardy: "children who do not read proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma than proficient readers."

Libraries are great. If you don't have the money to buy books, you can always borrow them. There are few things more wonderful than libraries.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. When my grandfather got married he was illiterate. Grandma, who had been a schoolteacher, taught him how to read and write so he could fill out a job application. I always remember him sitting in "his chair" in the living room with a newspaper in his hands, the television up loud.

If reading is a struggle, don't give up. It's never too late to begin. Start where you are at and keep practicing. Find library books at your reading level and don't give up.

Literacy Matters -- Including Quotes by Mark Twain, Groucho Marx and Two Presidents

“The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy, and unacceptable for our children, and we cannot afford to let it continue.”
--President Barack Obama

“All skills begin with the basics of reading and math, which are supposed to be learned in the early grades of our schools. Yet for too long, for too many children, those skills were never mastered.”
--President George W. Bush

* * * *
My career as a marketing professional commenced three decades ago, though there's a sense in which even before that I was marketing as a self-employed entrepreneur. There's no question that over the past thirty years there has been sea change due to the emerging Internet that has left few untouched.

One of the changes I've noticed (as a marketing person) is the burgeoning belief that visual media (specifically YouTube and Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest) is an increasingly essential vehicle for reaching people. As a writer I myself have attempted to dismiss this, barricading myself against the encroachment of non-literary communication. Over time, however, I have had to accept to a certain degree that things have not only been changing in how we communicate (face-to-face vs. texting) but also in how we use language. That is, evidence seems to support the notion that our literary skills -- ability to read and write -- have been in decline. 

Reading, writing and 'rithmetic have historically been the essential foundations necessary to an educated citizenry. What happens when people cease from obtaining these basic foundation stones?

When I began to look into it I quickly found the following, repeated on several websites: "2/3 of children who cannot read with proficiency by end of the 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare."

No, this lack of basic reading proficiency does not guarantee failure, but it does suggest that there is a basis for alarming concern.

Here is just one of the many such articles I stumbled upon:

Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters
A KIDS COUNT Special Report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation

Reading proficiently by the end of third grade (as measured by NAEP at the beginning of fourth grade) can be a make-or-break benchmark in a child’s educational development. Up until the end of third grade, most children are learning to read. Beginning in fourth grade, however, they are reading to learn, using their skills to gain more information in subjects such as math and science, to solve problems, to think critically about what they are learning, and to act upon and share that knowledge in the world around them.

I don't recall when the book was written but Why Johnny Can't Read (Rudolph Flesch) was another powerful indictment of our public education system and an alternate approach to teaching literacy.

Here's yet another article about the Top Ten Reasons Kids Can't Read. What's apparent is that this is not solely a U.S. problem. Canada, England and elsewhere have experienced similar declines in reading proficiency.

Can this decline in literacy be one of the reasons we see marketers push branding so heavily? The Nike "swoosh" has become an international symbol of the brand that needs no language whatsoever. The sad thing is that civilization has been progressing century after century, from cave man to modern times. The driving force behind the Reformation was to place the Word of God (Bible) into the hands of the people in their own language, which meant that the people would learn to read so they could have direct access to the holy words of their sacred texts. But now, in the Internet age, we see a shift away from words, from written communication, to images, videos, Instagram and symbols.

This can't be good. And as a writer, and a believer in the power of the written word, I revolt.

* * * *

One government report on this matter made this statement: Low achievement in reading has important long-term consequences in terms of individual earning potential, global competitiveness, and general productivity.

And here's another:

“[C]urrently, most children experience a wide range of disparate experiences that jumble together and end up requiring our youngest learners to figure them out on their own. Our children are not failing to learn. Our schools are failing to teach them effectively. To reverse this trend and provide children with the skills necessary for life-long learning, all Americans must take responsibility for guaranteeing a high-quality PreK–3rd education to this and future generations.” FROM “America’s Vanishing Potential: The Case for PreK–3rd Education,” by the Foundation for Child Development (2008).

Marketers are making the observation that fewer people are reading. My question is this... Is the problem today that people don't read, won't Read or can't read?

Of adults with the lowest literacy levels, 43 percent live in poverty, and 70% of adult welfare recipients have low literacy levels. There is a clear correlation between more education and higher earnings, and between higher educational scores and higher earnings.

Many of the problems in our country today are directly related to illiteracy.

Rather than take more surveys to stack up more evidence that there's a problem, it would seem it's time to take action. I like what Groucho Marx said: “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

I wrote my book Writing Exercises out of a conviction that knowing how to write well was an essential skill that young people should master in order to succeed. It's now apparent to me that reading well is even more foundational. I have one more selfish reason for having more readers. People who don't read won't read my books. Alas. 

“Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't.” -- Mark Twain