When I have so much I’d like to be doing, and my girls ask me to STOP to read, I am sometimes able to stop long enough to at least think about whether what I am doing can be paused or not and what might please God. Then, I remind myself of the ways I am helping my children: socially and emotionally, spiritually, and in other ways…
Here are some eye-opening statistics and quotes about literacy and reading:
1. “Children who have not developed some basic literacy skills by the time they enter school are 3 to 4 times more likely to drop out in later years.”
US Department of Education
2. “74% of children who are poor readers in 3rd grade are poor readers in 9th grade.”
Bob Chase, President, National Education Association
3. “So strong is the link between literacy and being a useful member of society that some states use 3rd grade?level reading statistics as a factor in projecting future prison construction.”
Bob Chase, President, National Education Association
4. Only 18.5% of state prison inmates are high school graduates.
Only 2.7% are college graduates.
National Institute for Literacy
5. Only 29.2% of children under age 6 living at poverty rate have a parent that was a high school graduate.
Only 2.8% have a parent with a college degree.
National Center for Children in Poverty
6. “To grow up reading is to grow up with power and freedom.”
Dr . Perri Klass, Director, Reach Out and Read
7. “If every child were read to daily from infancy, it would revolutionize education in this country.”
Former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley
More information from the National Institute for Literacy:
www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/facts.html
“To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence” is available as a book or free 98 page document from the National Endowment for the Arts website: www.arts.gov Publications, Literature
rachaeldevorah 