Could you envisage the following? Not being able to read the newspaper to know what is going on in the world surrounding you. Without being able to read an employment application, could you fill it out without being able to read? Did you get lost because you could not read the street signs or a map? You would not be able to drive for the same reasons.
We as a society, should join together, and be certain that every individual is gaining the wisdom to read along with the ability to learn to read.. Educate them with the pure pleasure and the necessity in life of reading. Reading is one of life’s skills. Could you see in your mind’s eye, yourself, among the 870 million people plus in the world that cannot read (adults) who because they cannot read are below on poverty level and cannot get a decent paying job because they are deficient in the necessary skills in life to do so.
You would not be able to take your other half to a sophisticated restaurant because you cannot read the menu. Therefore, you would not be able to take pleasure in the finer things that life has to put forward. Would you be able to sustain your family if you cannot read? Comfortably?
You end up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars because you cannot read what you sign your “x” at the bottom of the contract. {There are people who will take advantage of this.} How would you know if you were being swindled?
How would you respond if your child or grandchild would ask you, “Why can’t you read to me?” or “Why do I have to read this to you? How would you feel if you could not read that bedtime fairy-tale to your child or grandchild? Would the other children who find out, make fun of that child?
How would you cook? You need to be able to read the recipe and the ingredients on the cans and jars in order to make a scrumptious meal and not poison someone. For that matter, what seeds you is planting in order to have food? Or what insecticides to use for each type of plant or bugs.
How about prescriptions? How would you know which ones to take at what time? How would you know you are not taking pet medications?
Could you read warning labels? Lets put a curling iron on the rim of the bathtub and plug it in with little Johnny running loose…..
Our country states “No child left behind”, however, the children who are homeless or on or less than poverty level, do not read adequately to get thru life’s adventures without our help to teach them to read or start programs to assure that the adults and children can read even the most basic of books. With the right to free education for our children, there is not a reason in the world why we cannot make that 870 billion plus people be taught to read.
Granted, the English language has many pitfalls between the rules and various pronunciations of words we are taught as young children that are even harder to understand, but that does not grant the exclusion of learning to read. Humans are creatures of habit. We need to take advantage of this. It needs to be addressed before the calamity worsens. It has already hit pandemic magnitudes. Are we to continue to let it get worse? Is society becoming that lazy that we only stare at the “boobtube” in order to learn what we need to know in becoming successful adults? I worry about the day we get an illiterate president.
What about the government? Are we to let the children of tomorrow be our leaders of the world without knowing what the bill reads that is to become law if they sign it?
What about communications? With the way that the world is using the computers, which are faster than postal mail by using email how could you type the words or even write them?. Reading makes all this easier and possible.
How would you address your bills without being able to write the checks to pay them or better yet, manage your bank accounts so not to be defrauded. Would you be able to read your bank statements? Or even your legal documents?
There is no excuse for not being able to read in today’s world. An Adult that can read works better in the community surrounding him. A child that can read is our tomorrow.
And so now I ask you, “Why everyone needs to master this as a skill?
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