Combating Illiteracy in America

September 8 is World Literacy Day.

According to The Literacy Project, the average American reads at the 7th-8th grade level. The National Center for Educational Statistics says 21 percent of adults (43 million) fall into the illiterate/functionally illiterate category.

Keep that in mind when you tell people to just Google something. People might not have enough context to know how to phrase a question. If they find academic papers, they might not possess the vocabulary to understand what they’re reading. I fully believe that illiteracy has played a role in the rampant spread of misinformation that we’ve seen in recent years. We need to teach children and adults reading comprehension, critical thinking, and research skills.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
-Volunteer at a local library with an adult literacy program or advocate for your library system to create one
-Donate books to prison book programs
-Reach out to Little Free Library to learn how you can set one up in your neighborhood
-Read with (not to, with) the children in your life and have discussions about you’re reading
-Don’t shame adults who struggle with reading

Why should you care about illiteracy if you don’t struggle with it yourself? Because a country full of illiterate adults WILL and IS affecting all of us.