I recently returned from a trip to two countries in Africa where I visited libraries, bookstores and Universities talking to people about books and literacy. However, the context in which I worked was not related to the usual understanding of literacy (the ability to read and write) but literacy in the context of higher education.
According to the Wikipedia definition literacy also means 'reading and writing in a level adequate for written communication and generally a level that enables one to successfully function at certain levels of a society.'
Governments and aid agencies often give the impression that literacy is an easily defined term: if you can read a newspaper and write a grocery list you've got it. That's all you need, folks.
Desired literacy skills in our society include visual literacy, computer literacy and the ability to write clearly and effectively.
Numeracy (numerical literacy) is also essential to much of what we do: but simple arithmetic skills are not as common as we might think. If you asked your fellow diners at a restaurant or coffee shop to give an estimate of a 15% tip if their bill were, for example, $39.95 you may be surprised at how few can do this.
We learn to write well by reading, reading, reading. Of course, writing and re-writing teach us a lot as well, but we learn most of what we know about writing by reading other people's books and articles. If we don't read extensively – either by choice or by the lack of books and newspapers available to us – our literacy skills will not develop past rudimentary levels.
In Africa I saw people who wanted books and were eager to learn. I see a similar desire here from most people, especially children.
We have books and newspapers all around us, but we don't always take the time to use them. Our literary skills and our mental health depend on us using our brains and our books.
One of my aunts who had been librarian lived into her nineties, far longer than Statistics Canada or her doctors expected. She never went for walks and never joined a fitness club. Although she was mostly blind she sat in her house day after day reading library books and smoking. She often read several books a day, hardly moving from her couch. She was one of the most interesting and well-informed people I've ever known and she lived every day to its fullest.
So, if some well-meaning researcher phones and asks what you've done recently to keep fit tell him that you read a book last week, or yesterday, or this morning. Tell him about literacy. It's the newest fitness craze. And tell him about my aunt Mabel.
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