Illiteracy, meaning that you cannot read or write. Imagine yourself being a single parent and you do not know how to read or write. How would you be able to function as a parent without having these two main functions? How would you be able to take care of your child without being able to read or write? In the future, will the child follow in your footsteps? A lot of people over think literacy. Some people probably don’t even know what it means to be illiterate. These people have to overcome so much and we probably don’t even know who these people are. Someone might be able to graduate college with having this problem, but it is a difficult task to over come.
Imagine being a single parent and raising a young child with this disability. They won’t be able to read books to understand what to expect from a young child. The Parent magazines will be useless to them because they don’t know how to read. How is a parent supposed to raise a child properly without having extra knowledge to lean on? I am not saying they can’t be a good parent, but they have to over come so many more obstacles. They might have to go to a parenting class and listen to an instructor very closely. They can’t write anything down, so what they hear is all they will get. When they are teaching their child, how are they supposed to teach them to read and write if they can’t even do it themselves? Does the child simply not catch on and they follow their parent’s footsteps? Once again there are still ways for the child to be successful in school, but it could be a little more costly. The parent may have to hire a tutor to teach their child and help with their homework. There are plenty of ways for the parent to be a successful parent, but it may be a little more difficult compared to some people who have these skills already.
Now, imagine being a college student, like us right now. You wouldn’t be able to read my blog right now or even write your own. These students wouldn’t be able to read their textbook or even write their own homework. These students have to go the extra mile and have someone read their textbook to them and have someone write their homework while they tell them what to say. We like to complain and dread doing our homework and reading the book imagine how frustrated they must feel that they can’t even read it. We should be thankful that we have the ability to read and write and take advantage of these abilities. So when we hear time to read, don’t dread it and feel thankful and excited to use our abilities.
People don’t take illiteracy so seriously, like it’s not a big issue. It is a difficult thing to over come, but it is possible with hard work and time. These people have learned to function without being able to read or write, who knows maybe your classmate has this disability and we don’t even know it. When you hear that someone can’t read or write don’t always assume they are stupid, you never know they might be the next Bill Gates.
I agree that being an illiterate parent would be a difficult task. While it is hard on both the parent and children, I feel worse for the children involved because there is a good chance that the child will turn out the same way as the parent. The kid would have to learn everything at school and must possess the will to learn in order to avoid illiteracy. This is extremely hard I imagine, because when I was growing up, I learned just as much(if not more) at home then at school. The child will miss out on a lot of learning opportunities that other children their age will get from having literate parents. It is an unfortunate trend that takes place, but without being exposed to literacy at an early age, it is nearly impossible to break the trend. This is why you will sometimes see no one from a certain family attend college, because it is very hard to learn the skills necessary for college if your parents are unable to teach you.
ReplyDeleteAgain I agree with you that people should not take literacy for granted. I just don’t see how someone could have something so great and not be thankful to have that ability. Being literate not only makes school easier, but life in general much easier. Everyday I am grateful that I can read and write, and I think every literate person out there should feel the same way.
I must say, if I was illiterate I would probably just end my own life to escape the hardships of being unable to read or write. Why I say so is that being illiterate in today's society would make one subject to ridicule and scorn instead of offering assistance to teaching the illiterate person to read. Most people tend to adopt a "point and laugh" attitude when they view someone as an inferior in comparison to themselves when in reality they are just displaying their ignorance in the hardships of facing certain adversities. However if one where to assist a person who were illiterate and taught that person how to read and write it will inspire that person to learn, if they are willing to learn and truly wish to escape the curse of illiteracy. Should that person happen to succeed in teaching the illiterate person to read then that will not only make one person able to read but it will also give that person hope to move forward in life and aim for higher goals that they only dreamed of.
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