Literacy, the 1-trillion Dollar Problem

Sometimes one needs clarity.

To sum things up in one word, mine was literacy.

Because I have been thinking in big pictures lately and with that comes the big questions and alignment with what you are doing and why you do it.

What big question do you wish to solve? By turning a problem into a question, one can seek answers.

This is what I was discussing with Seann over dinner yesterday.

In short and from Star Trek comes the big question: What do you want Will Riker?

Sometimes one has to step back from the myriad of tasks and get a bird's eye view.

Why am I talking about this with you?

Good question.

Because I don't know a single person that doesn't struggle with their WHY and what they are going to do in life. So for me, the big word was Literacy, and then came the BIG question:

How much does your lack of literacy cost you?

Even in America, illiteracy leads to a host of damaging effects. The Washington Literacy Council found that 68% of those arrested in the U.S. are illiterate. The reputed New England Journal of Medicine called it “the silent epidemic” — and in study after study, the patients who could not read repeatedly visited emergency rooms and suffered worse health issues. The Houston Chronicle reported that, due to illiteracy, America suffers “$225 billion lost annually … because of unemployment, lack of workplace productivity and crime.”

https://www.mic.com/articles/23873/illiteracy-costs-the-global-economy-1-trillion 

Is literacy the same as education? No, it is not.

Education is on a specific area of life, but to access the information and to understand it one needs literacy.

Defining literacy as just reading and writing does not break it down far enough. What does literacy consist of? 

• Understanding the words used,
• understanding how sentences are made (the Writer's Pen Sentence Course),
• understanding the form each type of communication uses, 
• how to look up words in a dictionary and on the internet (you need both to succeed), and
• knowing how to study materials to get the most out of education.

• All this adds up to the ability in people to then learn different skills. Where's the proof?

Read this: The student was asked to ________?

You could guess what the word was, right?

Would you be right about the answer?

Could you draw a stick figure picture of that sentence without knowing the word? The answer is, of course, not.

Would the student be able to do what was asked of him or her? No. 

His or her ability would be blocked from doing so because of one word, and that is what is costing you and your ability to make money in the economy. It would stop outright your ability to do. Also, the number of words that are ________ = a lower level letter grade at school or college. But if that is not enough the more words a person does not know the meanings for is tragic. They cannot communicate would they need.

The student was asked to study.

Yes, now you can draw a picture of a person at a desk and reading, but that is not all there is to study. So, if what the student is expected to do is called study but no one explains what study is--and how to do it--again it costs us money in the door and much more.

Is there a way to learn literacy? Yes, there is. Quite frankly with the above statistics, the system in place has not separated out literacy as more important than reading and answering questions in regurgitation for a GPA (grade point average). Businesses are looking for people that can learn and think with information. If they wanted a parrot, they could buy one at the pet store.

If 48% of Americans are functionally illiterate, and 42% in Canada are also, what a loss of human potential. It can mean the inability to create a future for one's self. Just for understanding here how much this is affecting the economy alone? ABOUT 1 in 6 people and 1-trillion worldwide!

Is there a way out of this 1-trillion dollar mess? Yes, there is. Talk to me.

wtarasoff7@gmail.com