Illiteracy Programs - Bloomington-Normal

Illiteracy in Bloomington/Normal

Illiteracy has a debilitating affect on children and adults alike, and needs to be addressed in elementary and secondary school systems, as well as at home so that illiteracy will be eliminated in all walks of life.

What is illiteracy? The definition is: The state or quality of being illiterate; lack of education or cultures; an inability to read or write, suggesting poor or inadequate education.

According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, "Approximately 44 million people in the United States cannot read well enough to fill out an application, read a food label, or read a simple story to a child".

The state of Illinois has an estimated two-million adults that are considered illiterate. There is an estimated 6% in McLean County alone. This amount doesn't even include children.

Low literate parents do not consider the importance of model reading at home to their children, this in turn teaches the child that reading is not all that important. Children of illiterate parents often do not value reading and then the cycle of illiteracy is repeated. This goes back to "If the parents do it, it must be ok," syndrome in reverse - "Mom and Dad don't read, so I don't need too."

According to The Illinois State Literacy Office, "Adults must be reading at the ninth grade level to be considered literate", but to be able to function well in our society, adults need to be reading at a fairly sophisticated level.

All the information and research that I have done on illiteracy seems to lead back to a poor financial background. It seems that lower income families tend to have more illiteracy problems than families with unlimited or even medium means.

There are many facts about illiteracy that involves other states and other countries, but what if we focus on our state and our community? Fortunately, our community is one that tries to be aware of the issues surrounding us about illiteracy and offers programs to help.

The more information, books and educational materials we can provide to these unfortunate people, the closer we come to putting an end to illiteracy.

Supporters of Illiteracy and Learning in Bloomington

First Book

First Book provides access to new books for children in need.

To date, First Book has distributed more than 90 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families throughout the United States and Canada.

http://supporters.firstbook.org/site/Clubs?club_id=1050&pg=main