Vol. 71 No. 5 — September/October 1990 —
Life Without
Literacy
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Illiteracy is a scourge of humankind, breeding
misery and detracting from justice and democracy. Can we continue
to underestimate it and not do all we can about it, in Canada
or wherever it blights peoples" minds?
Imagine what it would be like if every fifth person on earth
were afflicted with a disease that left him or her permanently
disabled. Obviously the media would be full of news and comment
about it, researchers would be working tirelessly to find
a cure for it, funds would be pouring forth to aid victims
of it, and mammoth international information campaigns would
be launched to check its spread.
Well, according to Federico Mayor, director-general of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), upwards of 1 billion adults are unable to read or
write, which handicaps them just as surely as if they had
a physical impairment. The reason this scourge does not provoke
more action is that it is not readily visible. Instead of
restricting the use of peoples' eyes , ears or limbs, illiteracy
restricts the use of their minds.
A billion is a difficult number to digest. It represents
40 times Canada's present population. The immensity of such
a figure robs it of its meaning in basic human terms.
No long row of zeros can convey the hopelessness of an intelligent
young man in a Third World country who pushes a hand cart
in a bazaar, and knows that he will continue to push a hand
cart until he is immobilized by age or illness. His inability
to read disqualifies him for anything but the most punishing
kind of physical labour. He has no time to learn to read because,
merely to subsist, he must work 14 hours a day.
The UN's estimate that more than 100 million children are
without access to schools is another figure too enormous to
contemplate unless it is reduced to the personal level. It
is natural for parents anywhere to want the best for their
children: think of never being able to give a child an education
because no school is available, and not being able to teach
that child at home because you cannot read yourself.
Of course illiteracy is considered normal in many parts
of the world , but that does nothing to relieve the desolation
of talented and spirited individuals who are intellectually
imprisoned by their surroundings. Boys and girls growing up
in Third World villages have their dreams like their counterparts
in more affluent environments, but without the essential tools
of education and communication, there is little chance that
they can ever come close to making those dreams come true.
Millions upon millions of people are caught up in class
and caste restrictions which make reading and writing seem
irrelevant. It is taken for granted that people are born to
follow their parents' and ancestors' occupations. They usually
start to work at an early age without ever entering school.
In economies where the bulk of the work is done by hand
and trade is spread over a multitude of small scale artisans
and merchants, it is possible to at least survive without
reading or writing. To an outsider, the unlettered classes
in underdeveloped lands may appear to be quite contented.
Why then attempt to promote literacy in places where it is
not among the highest priorities?
Perhaps the simplest and yet strongest reason was expressed
by the 19th century British writer and statesman Thomas Carlyle:
"That there should be one man die ignorant when he had the
capacity for knowledge, this I call a tragedy." People are
bound to remain ignorant if they cannot read and write, because
literacy is the key to learning almost any subject beyond
a rudimentary stage.
This means that illiterates are prevented from making the
most of life, since education sets a person free to seek self-fulfillment.
More important, it means that they are blocked off from contributing
a full measure of their intelligence and talent to the general
good of their communities. In cultures which discourage education
among females, half or more of the people are disallowed from
doing all they can to benefit their fellow human beings.
The shame is compounded by the fact that illiteracy is a
preventable state
When one considers how many advances in civilization have
been made over the centuries by the tiny minority that traditionally
could read and write, one wonders just how far the human race
might have progressed by now if most of the earth's inhabitants
had possessed the faculty to cultivate ideas through reading
and express them in the portable and lasting form of writing.
How many potential Platos or Shakespeares or Einsteins might
be living at this very moment amongst what the pioneer literacy
advocate Frank Laubach called " The Silent Billion?" Is there
a boy or girl somewhere out there where there are no schools
who might have the ability to find a cure for cancer - or
for hate?
We shall never know what might have been accomplished if
the great bulk of the human race had not been shackled by
an inability to absorb knowledge and communicate ideas. What
we do know is that this mass intellectual handicap
exacts a terrible price.
"Illiteracy kills," as the head of the Organization for
World Literacy, Carlos Murtore, recently said. The transmission
of AIDS and other contagious diseases, disease-breeding insanitation,
unproductive or destructive agricultural practices, overpopulation
- all these blights on the underdeveloped world are perpetuated
by the inability to communicate effectively with people who
cannot be reached by written words.
The havoc wrought by illiteracy normally comes in a round-about
way , but it can sometimes be grimly straightforward. For
instance, India's Central Road Research Institute has traced
a high proportion of the 40,000-plus fatal traffic accidents
in that country every year to the fact that approximately
99 per cent of Indian truck drivers cannot read traffic signs.
In declaring 1990 International Literacy Year, UNESCO's
Mr. Mayor called it a "collective shame" that so many people
should be consigned to the darkness of ignorance in the closing
decade of a century which was supposed to have been enlightened.
The shame is compounded by the fact that illiteracy is not
inevitable: it is a preventable and correctable state.
Given the opportunity and motivation, the vast majority
of the world's illiterate people could be taught to read,
write, and do arithmetic. Thanks to modern teaching techniques,
even those with learning disabilities can become fully literate
and "numerate," meaning being able to count and calculate.
Why aren't they, then? The excuse most often offered is
that resources are scarce: there are not enough teachers,
not enough classrooms, there is not enough money. The horrifying
thing is that , while there is never enough money to educate
people, there always seems to be plenty of money around the
world for arms to kill and maim them. In some places, youngsters
are likely to pick up a gun or a fire bomb before they ever
pick up a book.
Nevertheless, Third World nations do face barriers to general
literacy which are embedded in economics and political and
cultural tradition. In a relatively rich and advanced country
such as Canada , there is no excuse at all for widespread
illiteracy.
Yet shockingly enough, well-grounded research has shown
that the incidence of illiteracy in this country is approximately
the same as the estimated world average - at least one in
every five adults. An extensive study by the Southam News
group in 1987 revealed that a minimum of 24 per cent of Canadians
aged 18 or over were functionally illiterate in English or
French, and/or unable to do simple arithmetic.
This was more than double previous estimates by the federal
government, which assumed for official purposes that anyone
with nine years' schooling or more could read, write, and
count adequately. If that assumption was ever correct, it
certainly is no longer: more than one-third of the illiterates
turned up by the Southam survey were high school graduates.
The survey recognized that literacy is a relative state:
greater knowledge is required to get along in the sophisticated
milieu of Canada than in places where there is less call for
reading. It concentrated on the ability to use written material
effectively enough to function in Canadian society today.
A nightmare of being laughed at while we grope in the dark and run into walls
Researchers interviewed a cross-section of some 3,000 Canadian
residents in their homes and gave them a test which included
such seemingly easy acts as finding the correct dosage on
a cough syrup bottle, circling the expiry date on a driver's
licence, picking out the long distance charges on a telephone
bill, and calculating the change on a restaurant bill. When
the results were projected into the total population, they
indicated that at least 4.5 million Canadians, and possibly
as many as 5 million, lacked the language and numeracy skills
necessary to keep up fully with the demands of everyday life.
The Canadian statistics, like those of the world as a whole,
blanket a great deal of individual misery. Again and again,
the people interviewed said that no fully literate person
could imagine the frustration and humiliation that goes with
not being able to read, write or count. It often results in
abject heartbreak. One woman blamed her divorce on the gap
in understanding between a husband who could read and a wife
who could not.
For most of us, living as an illiterate person in a developed
country today would be like having a nightmare, groping in
the dark , running smack into walls, being convinced that
everyone around us is sneering at our clumsiness and confusion.
Illiterate men and women have trouble doing things which most
of never give a second thought: finding addresses, looking
up telephone numbers, paying bills, taking buses, shopping.
Asked why he didn't get a job, one man explained that he couldn't
read the help-wanted ads in a newspaper. If he did find an
opening, he said, he couldn't fill out the application form.
Illiteracy in Canada is a more painful condition than in
less- developed societies because here, it carries a social
stigma. It is commonly seen as a mark of laziness or stupidity
in a country where , theoretically at least, everybody has
a chance to attend and stay for a reasonable length of time
in school.
In fact, the disgraceful illiteracy rate in Canada owes
much to a significantly higher drop-out rate than in comparable
countries like West Germany, Sweden and the United States.
Almost 30 per cent of present-day Canadian youths never finish
high school, roughly twice the percentage in the U.S.
More than half of a representative group of Canadian drop-outs
aged 18 to 24 said in recent interviews that they had quit
school out of lack of interest in education, a desire to take
a job, or boredom. Apparently it never occurred to those who
left without adequate reading skills how boring it would be
never to read an entertaining book.
Those who do drop out before they learn to read soon find
that the society treats them at best as clowns and at worst
as pariahs. To Canadians in general, being illiterate is something
to be embarrassed about, like having been in jail.
Illiterate people therefore go to strenuous lengths to hide
their disability. They get friends and family members to look
up information, fill out forms and so forth. They resort to
subterfuges like pretending they forgot their glasses at home
when faced with having to read something, and always ordering
"the special" in restaurants without knowing what it is.
A fair percentage of Canadian illiterates have learned to
cope so well with these stratagems that they see no need for
remedial training. But the time when an illiterate person
could expect to lead a fairly untroubled life is fading fast.
Reading is becoming "a must" in more and more occupations,
from farming to working in a laundry with computerized washing
machines. Industry has become the domain of the written word,
whether on computer screens or paper. Every time a modern
industrial worker turns around, it seems, there are more manuals
to scan, more electronic "prompts" to respond to, more notes
to write, more forms to fill out.
Along with outright illiteracy, semi-literacy has become
a matter of growing concern among Canadian employers. They
find that high school and university graduates cannot write
simple memos or work with alphabetical files. This is happening
at a time when Canada has never had more need of an alert,
adaptable, and thoroughly competent work force to hold its
own in the free-for-all of international trade in the age
of high technology.
Functional illiteracy is estimated to cost Canadian business
$4 billion a year in errors, retraining, work-related accidents,
and foregone productivity. Every time someone mistakes the
meaning of an instruction or botches a shipping order, our
international competitiveness suffers just that infinitesimal
little bit more.
In the interests of competitiveness, Canadian industry has
been re- equipping with ever more advanced technology. As
a result, the number of jobs for skilled and educated workers
is rising, while the number of jobs in which workers are not
expected to read is shrinking drastically.
The only permanent defence is to create
a "literate environment"
The instinctive reaction to Canada's poor performance in
the international literacy stakes is to blame the educational
system. But it must be remembered that schools today play
a non-educational role imposed on them by society. Youngsters
who years ago would have been held back a grade because of
language deficiencies now qualify for "social promotion" so
that they can keep up with their age group. Schools are expected
to deal with motivational and behavioural problems which were
formerly addressed in students' homes.
The problem is not so much one of education as of attitudes,
habits and values. "Literacy is something that begins at home,"
Lynn McAlpine, program director of adult education at McGill
University, said in a recent interview with the Montreal
Gazette . "If children don't see reading at home it becomes
part of the school culture, not the home culture. It isn't
a natural part of living." The best advice the experts can
give to parents who worry that their children might grow up
with inadequate language skills is to read to them and read
along with them. That way, they are introduced early to the
delights of reading. They see it as a pleasure, not a chore.
If Canada is to face up to the stern demands of the competitive
age , the cultivation of literacy must spread through the
culture in general. The only permanent defence against illiteracy
is to create what one expert calls "a literate environment,"
in which reading and writing are prized not for economic reasons,
but for their own sake. Just as we aim for a high standard
of living, so we should aim for a high standard of literacy.
The two, after all, are connected to a large degree.
The low value hitherto placed on literacy in this country
has serious implications politically and socially. In effect,
the illiterate portion of our citizenry is deprived of an
effective voice in the democratic process, simply because
people who cannot communicate on paper are unable to promote
their own best interests politically. Illiteracy also breeds
grievous social problems. Those knocked out of the mainstream
by their disability are more likely than most to turn to drug
and alcohol abuse and crime.
The public perception of illiteracy is crucial to efforts
to grapple with it. It is not true that illiterate people
are necessarily lacking in intelligence or industriousness,
meaning that they are unwilling to take remedial training.
We are all too quick to say, "it's their own fault" when
people cannot read and write, whereas they may be victims
of circumstances . Dozens of factors can contribute to illiteracy.
One woman told a magazine interviewer that nobody ever read
in her childhood home because her mother was very neat, and
didn't want a lot of paper cluttering up the place.
By saying "it's their own fault," what we are really saying
is: " It's their own problem." When its economic, political
and social depredations are taken into account, illiteracy
clearly becomes a everybody's problem, because the whole country's
social progress and prosperity is at stake. Illiteracy represents
a serious drain on our national pool of brain power. In the
sophisticated global economy that is growing up around us,
brain power is fast becoming the main commodity a developed
nation has to sell.
Fortunately, illiteracy is not one of those things the average
citizen can do nothing about. On the contrary, anyone with
a good grasp of language and numbers may volunteer as a tutor
with community literacy groups (to find your local group,
check with the United Way or other central volunteer agencies
in your area). Anyone who is personally acquainted with an
illiterate person can gently urge him or her to take part
in remedial training.
Half the battle against illiteracy is against the stigma
it carries . Men and women who are reluctant to come out of
the illiteracy closet must be persuaded that they are capable
of learning to read, write and count; that, whatever age they
are, there is always another chance.
As for the governments from which so much of the funding
for literacy training comes, they must be convinced that illiteracy
is a national issue which citizens are seriously concerned
about, and wish to be placed high on the list of policy priorities.
The same applies to the scourge of illiteracy worldwide. We
must demonstrate to our leaders that we consider illiteracy
a leading global problem , and that we want Canada to join
wholeheartedly in the fight against it in cooperation with
other nations.
We must make it clear that we do not want those who represent
us to stand by while illiteracy continues to work its insidious
evil on mankind's capacity to live in health, safety and justice.
Much more should be done about it, and much more can
be done.
New Look, New Paper
This edition of the Royal Bank Letter introduces a new graphic
design intended to make it visually easier to read and give
it a more contemporary appearance. Also in line with contemporary
trends , the Letter will henceforth be printed on recycled
paper as part of the Royal Bank's commitment to environmental
conservation.
Published by RBC Financial Group. All editions from the RBC
Letter collection are available on our web site at www.rbc.com/responsibility/letter.
Our e-mail address is: rbcletter@rbc.com.
Publié aussi en francais.
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