More News on Low Literacy

by Michael Novelli   |  February 03 2009    04:04 PM

A long-awaited federal study finds that an estimated 32 million adults in the USA — about one in seven — are saddled with such low literacy skills that it would be tough for them to read anything more challenging than a children's picture book or to understand a medication's side effects listed on a pill bottle.


Read entire article from Jan. 8, 2009 USA Today by clicking HERE.

I have noticed when discussing literacy issues many youth workers have reacted with, "Not my students – they all can read well – our schools make sure of it. Your statistics are skewed by immigrants and the poor." My response is, "Don't be so sure..." Concluding that low literacy is just confined to a demographic is an oversimplification of the issue.

About 6 or 7 years ago I began to pay careful attention my youth group's reading and comprehension. The group I was leading at the time was mostly from a very high-rated school system with upper middle class families. Parents moved into this community in order for their children to attend these schools, and bragged about it! When we began using inductive Bible study methods, it became glaringly obvious to me that our students – the rich kids from the highly touted schools – struggled with reading and comprehension. And we were studying some of the "easier" portions of the Bible!

I think some of the struggle with literacy in our culture has a lot to do with a shift in the way people handle information, communicate and learn.
What do you think? What have you noticed?