Literacy

I was pondering what it means to read and write.

It is not just words in a row. It is the sharing of points of view, the creation of history, the making something real out of the thin fog that we call ideas.

To put words on paper or even a computer file is making them something more than a state of mind. It is turning ideas into a reality that is not subject to the whims of human memory.

Literacy is a sense of permanence. It is a way to make today last forever. It is a photograph for ideas. It is memory that does not change and an idea not forgotten. Literacy is our tomorrow.

I know people that are what I call “functionally illiterate”, those that can read the words and make sentences from them, but fall short of actually comprehending the meanings and the ‘voice’ that is being put before them. They are unable to wrap their brains around the actual ideas. It is just too much work.

American education often falls short in this fundamental skill; actually teaching literacy. I don’t blame the system. I think a child has to want to learn to read. You can lead a child to knowledge, but you can’t make him think.

I have often said that if a child can learn to read, write, and do arithmetic he or she has the building blocks to learn anything. These three fundamental skills open the door to all knowledge that humans have acquired and the ability to create more.

Without literacy, a person lives in a deep hole of ignorance, forever limited by the depth of the hole and its steep, slippery sides.

In a sense, we are all limited by our view of the world around us and the depth of our understanding. When one is literate, he/she can be in places that are distant and strange and learn points of view that would not otherwise be experienced. To be literate is the ability to experience things out of your normal realm of existence.

Thus my musings take me to a dark place, a feeling that most Americans and most of the world will forever live in that well of ignorance, drowning in their own limited perceptions of the world that we live in, unable to grow as humans.

It really does not seem to be getting any smarter out there.

Let’s all try to learn something new every day and try to comprehend another’s point of view on every other day just to keep in practice. It may do nothing for the world, but it may teach you something. I know I have learned things that way.

And I sincerely hope you are not tired from swimming in my metaphor.