Let’s talk literacy

Devin Owen
MSMU Class of 2026

(9/2024) The definition of the term literacy is as follows: "the ability to read and write." It is a concept that, for many, seems to be second nature, however; that is not the case for everyone and most times we seem to forget just how important literacy really is to our daily lives. Considering that literacy isn’t something that many of us are hyper-fixated on, I’m sure there are some of us that were unaware of International Literacy Day, which takes place on September 8th each year. When I was told about our topic for this month’s article, I was even surprised because this was a day I hadn’t known about before, but I’m glad to know about it now!

After doing some research I found out that International Literacy Day is an international observance day which was declared by the group UNESCO in October 1966 as a way to raise awareness and concern for problems in regard to literacy that may exist either within the local communities or more widespread around the globe; and it was first celebrated on September 8th, 1967. The day provides an opportunity to recognize the power in which literacy holds, especially in our everyday lives.

As someone who grew up with reading and writing as my favorite subjects in school, literacy is something I find to be critically important. When I was younger, I was taught to write letters to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other family members who lived in different states. Sending and receiving letters was a huge part of my childhood, it became one of my absolute favorite things to do and frankly, I believe that it was the reason in which I grew to love writing as much as I do. This was the period of my life that I learned how much literacy carries beyond just words on a page; it carries emotion, memories, history, communication, peace and so much more. Think of how we communicated from far distances before cell phones and the internet; it was mostly by writing letters.

Our history has been taught to us through the power of literacy as well. Without the written documents from the past, we would not have much to go on in deciphering the happenings of those days. A huge add-on to that as well though is the concept of handwriting. In today’s society, our newer generations have such a difficult time reading and writing cursive lettering because it isn’t taught much anymore. Personally, I grew up writing and reading in cursive constantly because that was how my family writes (aside from my dad and his dad). When I write, it is usually a mix between cursive and print. My little brother on the other hand, can’t read or write cursive because they stopped teaching it a year after I learned, and he is only two years younger than I am. It makes understanding works of the past incredibly difficult because almost all of them are written in cursive—just look at the Declaration of Independence!

Literacy is a cornerstone of personal and societal development as it affects almost every aspect of life itself. This includes concepts such as forming communities, education, the economy, communication, employment, health (both mental and physical), access to information, and so much more! Communication is such a crucial part of a functioning society and literacy helps to make it as effective as possible. It allows for people to clearly and effectively express themselves, while also having the ability to understand others as they express themselves—whether that be through writing or words spoken aloud. All of these aspects kind of go hand-in-hand with one another though; communication is a part of the foundation of forming a community and functional society, which offers employment opportunities, healthcare, education, access to information, etc. Having access to information allows one to make informed decisions when necessary, and those who are literate can use that skill to access and interpret information presented to them or researched through books, newspapers, and the internet to make said decisions. This can all be applied to the aspects listed above as well, especially in the categories of health and education: areas that you want to have all of the information you need prior to making decisions.

In regard to education, I find literacy to be a crucial teaching point for people of all ages. It’s funny, my older sister and I went to dinner a few nights ago so that we could catch up and hangout without the looming presence of the reality of our lives (i.e. children, work, and school), and one of the things we discussed was public school education. My sister had shown me a video from Instagram that depicted why someone refused to enroll her child in kindergarten as a 5-year-old. One of the key points of that video claimed that people have their whole lives to learn how to read, so why start teaching the basics at such a young age? I can see the point there: yes, we have all the time in the world to learn to read and write but, at the same point, the society we live in today makes it crucial for us to understand how to read and write for the sake of proper communication. Personally, I find it to be important to learn literacy at any age as long as you take the time to learn it because that is a skill that seems to be a must in our society.

The overall takeaway from this is the following: literacy is so incredibly important and powerful! It is a skill that shapes the way that we function both as a society and individually. By means of communication and understanding, to employment and our health, literacy holds the power to make these aspects of life both easier to preform and understand. Frankly, without literacy I’m not exactly sure what our society would look like; would it still function as it does now? Or would we be struggling to live peacefully with those around us? I know one thing is certain, without literacy you most definitely wouldn’t be reading this edition of the News Journal right now!