Nearly HALF of us cannot read properly. HALF. That's huge. Specially for a first world country. I love to read so much that I cannot imagine living a life where the written word scares me or makes me uncomfortable. Growing up, I had shitty clothes, I didn't have a fancy bedroom set with a canopy bed like my friends did. I was jealous of that. But I never wanted for books. I had hundreds of books. Books I would devour until the wee hours with a flashlight under the covers, books I would read in the sun in my backyard, in the public library, at my school library, in my classroom, everywhere. I was constantly reading. If I had been allowed, I would have read at the dinner table. Reading infused my life with experiences I'll never had, let me live adventures, opened my eyes to a huge world of possibilities. To learn that nearly half of my fellow Canadians are missing out on this enriching experience makes me really, really sad.
Each year the !ndigo love of reading foundation gives grants of $40,000 to twenty schools across Canada to update the libraries of schools in need and fight illiteracy. Illiteracy to me is a form of poverty. Because, if you can't read, what are you going to do with your life? Your options are pretty limited. That we are failing generations of little Canadians by not providing them with the necessary tools to develop a love of reading makes me really, really sad. The !ndigo Foundation is giving libraries the tools they need to stay relevant to their students, to get students in those rooms filled with books, one of my most favourite places to be. Listening to the response from the Tillicum Community Annex when they were informed by the !ndigo rep that they'd won actually did make me cry a little bit. Must be getting soft in my age.
Today, I am thankful for the enriching qualities that books have added to my life. I am thankful that I can read. I am thankful that my 5-year old son can read and already shares my love of reading.
It's amazing, isn't it? How many people cannot read. Unfortunately, I personally know more students who cannot read that those who can. A sad function of my role, perhaps. Or is it also a reflection of the decreased societal emphasis on education? this sounds preposterous for us as we both value education and will instill that value in our children. But thousands of people come to this country each year who will never learn to read english, and will therefore be unable to assist in their children's reading. I suspect that this will get worse before it gets better. sorry for the downer. I'm going to go drown my pessimistic predictions in good, smutty novel now. Because I can.
ReplyDelete