Today's guest post is from Ben Merrion, Literacy Outreach Specialist with the District of Columbia Public Library.
Ben writes:There has been much debate in the press about how to handle, the mortgage crisis the recession and health care; however, what has not been mentioned enough is how these issues are affected by the many adults who have low literacy levels. Earlier this year, both CNN and USA Today covered the most recent report issued from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy and mentioned the statistic that 1 in 7 Americans have difficulty reading. In the DC area, that number is much greater - about 1 in 5 (19%). However, other than these two big mentions, there wasn’t much coverage overall, and now, the topic of adult literacy has mostly fallen off the public’s radar, and most people do not know these facts.
David Harvey, the CEO of a national adult literacy advocacy organization, ProLiteracy Worldwide, was interviewed recently on C-Span and throughout the interview he mentioned how problems with the issue of adult literacy can be linked to other social issues. He mentioned how the sub-prime mortgage crisis happened in part because of people who couldn’t understand the documents they were reading and signing. He also mentions the fact that those who have been hardest hit by the recession are those who are without a GED or high school diploma.
This has been my experience working at the Adult Literacy Resource Center which is part of the DC Library. We offer information and referral services to those seeking help with basic skills, GED preparation and learning English. We also offer the GED Practice Test free to those who want to take the test without preparing and they have to take and pass it to be able to take the actual GED exam. I have seen many people who have come in for classes or to get a GED because they need a job. Unfortunately, if people do not already have the skills needed to pass the test, it usually takes months of studying and some are not ready to hear that because they need to get a job very quickly.
Harvey also mentioned that a discussion about literacy and how it affects health care is being left out of the debate. He said that adult illiteracy costs our health care system 28 billion dollars a year and if we fixed the literacy problem, we may have enough money to cover those uninsured. These statements, however, in and of themselves are debatable; I asked a colleague of mine who works in the health literacy field and who also volunteers at an adult literacy program about this and she thinks that just fixing the health literacy problem would not solve health issues and that real prevention is intertwined with things such as well paid jobs, no unemployment and housing for all as well as good education. What is less debatable is that health literacy matters: people need to be able to read prescription labels and understand correct doses to take for themselves and others they care about, for example.
Adult literacy matters - it is an important social issue because it is intertwined with other issues people care about and affects those outside of the field in many ways. But so many people are not aware of its importance; because of this, the Adult Literacy Resource Center (ALRC) and DC’s literacy coalition, DC LEARNs, are partnering to do some exciting projects in the future. We will be creating videos about adult learners who have had successes and we will launch an adult literacy blog on DC LEARNs’ website in late September. If you would like to help, check out the ALRC’s facebook page for volunteer opportunities, and announcements about the previously mentioned videos and blog: http://www.facebook.com/
This has been my experience working at the Adult Literacy Resource Center which is part of the DC Library. We offer information and referral services to those seeking help with basic skills, GED preparation and learning English. We also offer the GED Practice Test free to those who want to take the test without preparing and they have to take and pass it to be able to take the actual GED exam. I have seen many people who have come in for classes or to get a GED because they need a job. Unfortunately, if people do not already have the skills needed to pass the test, it usually takes months of studying and some are not ready to hear that because they need to get a job very quickly.
Harvey also mentioned that a discussion about literacy and how it affects health care is being left out of the debate. He said that adult illiteracy costs our health care system 28 billion dollars a year and if we fixed the literacy problem, we may have enough money to cover those uninsured. These statements, however, in and of themselves are debatable; I asked a colleague of mine who works in the health literacy field and who also volunteers at an adult literacy program about this and she thinks that just fixing the health literacy problem would not solve health issues and that real prevention is intertwined with things such as well paid jobs, no unemployment and housing for all as well as good education. What is less debatable is that health literacy matters: people need to be able to read prescription labels and understand correct doses to take for themselves and others they care about, for example.
Adult literacy matters - it is an important social issue because it is intertwined with other issues people care about and affects those outside of the field in many ways. But so many people are not aware of its importance; because of this, the Adult Literacy Resource Center (ALRC) and DC’s literacy coalition, DC LEARNs, are partnering to do some exciting projects in the future. We will be creating videos about adult learners who have had successes and we will launch an adult literacy blog on DC LEARNs’ website in late September. If you would like to help, check out the ALRC’s facebook page for volunteer opportunities, and announcements about the previously mentioned videos and blog: http://www.facebook.com/
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