It will take between 36 to 48 months to eliminate illiteracy in America’s
schools!
Believe it?
Well ... probably not!
Excuses abound as to why we cannot achieve this. We
have all the skills, knowledge, and experience to send “a man on the moon
and returning
him safely to the earth” – oh that was a different vision.
My conclusion is as a nation we really don't want
to each child fully and functionally literate.
Did I just say that?
If we were serious about universal literacy, we would
get it done. No excuses!
We already know what is necessary to successfully
teach each learner. We can effectively
teach each child to learn to read as well as how to read to learn.
The excuses, explanations, objections, rebuttals,
and the like are underpinned by opinion not empirical research. Our challenges to eradicating illiteracy are
more associated with the adults not the learners. In part, motivated by the incredible amount
money spent on interventions and remediation and in part by the lack of
understanding effective pedagogy, literacy is not universal nor will it be any
time in the near future.
Don’t get me wrong.
Teachers every day provide incredible learning for learners despite the
system constraints they face. Incredible
as it may seem, the very system they find themselves working within is working
against them and us for that matter.
The narrowly defined accountability system, the
inability to understand standards, and the inability to design, deliver as well
as assess instruction to inform instructional decisions combine to create a
culture of failure – though we expect differently.
Often falling on deaf ears, those most adversely
impacted by the system are those most dependent upon our schools for their
learning, their success, and their future.
Their future however is our future.
The cost of failure to learn as well as failed
learning is extremely costly fiscally and culturally not to mention the
devastation to the human spirit.
The most egregious result of illiteracy is poverty. Poverty is too expensive. We cannot afford it. Rather than throw money away at programs to
remediate, reform or recover failed learning why don’t we make the investment
to prevent the failure to learn – eradicate illiteracy!
A fully literate society will not necessarily
eradicate poverty. It will, however,
purposefully begin to reverse societal erosion caused by generational
poverty. Breaking the cycle of poverty
cannot and will not authentically begin until we achieve universal literacy.
The first step to eradicate illiteracy is the most
challenging – change the way we think before we change the way we behave. Prevention to intervention requires a
commitment to the mission that marshals not only fiscal resources but also
human capital to aggressively address the skill, knowledge, and experience
deficit children have as they enter the system.
The advent of effective and efficient digital
tools, robust technology solutions that address learner inexperience with oral
and written language are literally at our fingertips. What we must do is first utilize these tools
now, consistently and constantly to address literacy. Without this action learners with the
aforementioned deficits will never access or engage the full curriculum let
alone meet or exceed local, state, national, or international standards.
This is where insanity manifests itself. Without disrupting our thinking or our
behavior we commit the same crime as those before us – what isn’t learned now
will be remediated later!
Seriously?
Our educators need permission to ensure literacy
first before “tilting at windmills”.
Policy makers listen up - If literacy is the focus
of our intentions, convictions, commitments, and decisions first and foremost,
accountability will take care of itself.
Not sure why we don’t get this?
Unless of course
there is different agenda -
