Literacy Frees Slaves
Frederick Douglass, a former slave, said, “Once you have learned to read you will be forever free.” Just because slavery was legally abolished in the U.S. and U.K. doesn’t mean it disappeared. People still experience life situations that keep them enslaved to poverty and dead-end employment. Furthermore, the school-to-prison pipeline is real. Literacy provides the best path to escape.
Literacy for Angry and Hopeless Youth
“Illiteracy and crime are closely related. The Department of Justice states, ‘The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.’ Over 70% of inmates in America’s prisons cannot read above a fourth-grade level.” Lack of literacy produces anger and hopelessness, which result in crime. This much is clear. A few people break out of the cycle — I’m thinking of Malcom X — but most don’t. We need to teach reading well BEFORE the cycle sets in! Many prisoners are dyslexic, but were called lazy and stupid rather than offered alternative pathways to reading.
Literacy Changes Lives for Neurodiverse People
Neurodivergence of many kinds can shift educational efforts to “behavior adjustment” rather than literacy. Ironically, literacy is often the key to allowing an individual to communicate in ways other than the targeted behaviors. Consider the story of a girl with autism who could not speak. Therefore, she wasn’t taught to read! When she taught HERSELF to read and type, she was able to advocate for environmental changes that made her world tolerable. She wrote the book, Carly’s Voice: Breaking Through Autism, which powerfully communicates her experiences before and after she attained literacy.
Change the World
What can you do to change the world? Teach a kid to read! And if that child doesn’t learn to read the way you teach it, try other ways. My book, Dyslexia Tool Kit Expanded Edition: What to do when phonics isn’t enough provides lots of different ways to approach reading. These methods work for any struggling reader. So maybe you can’t change the whole world, but you can change it dramatically for those you teach!
by Yvonna Graham, M.Ed.; www.dyslexiakit.net
For audiobook access try free classics at Librivox, professionally read newer books at Audible for $15/mo, or textbooks at Learning Ally. (affiliate link)