Consider this statement: It’s OK to not know how to read as an adult.
Think about that. What is your reaction?
As someone who knows the power of adult literacy, maybe your initial thought is, “of course that’s not OK”? We know low literacy feeds the cycle of social and economic inequalities like poverty generation to generation.
What about someone without knowledge of the adult literacy issue? Their reaction might be a little more abrupt. In our work, we’ve heard unwarranted comments that imply laziness, or that adults had the opportunity to learn to read, and if they didn’t learn as a child that is no one’s fault but their own.
There is a stigma attached to adults who cannot read well. This stigma has an effect on society and how it views an adult with low literacy. It also affects adult learners who can feel embarrassed or ashamed of their low skill level, sometimes even hiding it from their own families.
But let’s really think about it: It’s OK to not know how to read as an adult.
If you were an adult considering getting help, wouldn’t that message feel more welcoming? Wouldn’t you feel encouraged and supported knowing you’re not alone?
There are 48 million American adults who read at or below a third-grade level. Yet less than 10% are enrolled in adult literacy services. I believe we can and should do better. We have to find new ways to address what is holding potential learners back.
There are many well-documented barriers that keep adults from getting literacy help, but I believe that if we could flip the stigma associated with low literacy, we’d be able to impact change. When society judges those who cannot read, they are less likely to feel like it’s OK to identify themselves and seek help.
OK, so let’s flip the stigma.
Look at the shift we’ve seen over the last decade or so regarding the stigma of mental health. Everyone from celebrities and athletes to school principals and young children has become comfortable talking about this once-taboo subject. It’s accepted now to hear the phrase “It’s OK to not be OK.”
We can learn from these efforts to educate the general public about mental health and apply them to adult literacy.
It’s OK to not know how to read as an adult.
Why? Because for the vast majority of low literate adults, the causal factor is not laziness or squandered opportunities. What we need to communicate and help people understand is that low adult literacy is usually beyond the control of the individual and often a result of any number of educational and socioeconomic issues.
It’s not uncommon to hear reports of the high percentage of children nationwide and even higher percentages of children from low-income families who are not proficient readers by end of third grade. We hear from adult educators, stories about how many of their adult learners were pushed through the school system—some even graduating with skills far below their grade level. We hear stories from adult learners about how they were labeled dumb, stupid, or unable to learn, and how that has affected them as adults who foster very negative feelings toward education.
There’s the reality of inequitable living situations that many across our society have been born into—poverty, food and housing insecurity, lack of access to an adequately funded, high performing school, and more. These factors make it hard for kids to succeed at school, setting them up to fall behind and become low-literate adults. None of these barriers can be controlled by children, but left unaddressed, the likelihood of them becoming part of a statistic on low adult literacy increases.
When surveyed, most people believe they do not know someone who cannot read. Once we remove the stigma of low adult literacy, we can put a face on who adult learners are—the maintenance man at your church, the waitress at the corner diner, the parent of your child’s classmate—people we know and care about.
Encouraging and supporting those who need literacy help would lead to more adults working to build their skills, getting better jobs, and empowering the next generation.
Don’t we all want to live in strong communities? Once we all accept that it’s OK to not know how to read as an adult and that we can all offer encouragement and support to help low-literate adults learn, we can build momentum that won’t be easily stopped to empower every adult through literacy.
AEFL Week
This week, we invite you to join our social media Lifelong Learning Challenge. Visit us on Facebook and Instagram and share your own video explaining how you are a lifelong learner.
Webinar
Don’t forget to register for our webinar this week: “Sustaining Student Engagement through Equity and Inclusion”
When: 1 p.m., September 18