Now that we’re done fighting over book bans, let’s tackle the real issue
Literacy, not book bans, is the real book problem Texas should tackle The Dallas Morning News
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Reading and the Importance of Literacy
Family lore goes that I learned how to read at age 4 with this very newspaper. Dallas may have been a two-newspaper city then, but we were decidedly a one-newspaper family.
I’ve been reading nonstop ever since, devouring words wherever I find them. As a child, when I ran out of age-appropriate texts, I moved on to encyclopedias, magazines, parenting reference books, liner notes of albums. When there were ideas I didn’t understand, I’d either ask someone or abandon the words for something else.
I can’t imagine my life without reading and the window it offers to cultures and events, countries and people, concepts and perspectives — even those I don’t agree with or understand. And I’m thankful that no one ever took a book from my hands.
The Fight for Censorship
For the past couple of years, a small yet loud group of parents, pundits and politicians across the country have been fighting to keep some books out of libraries. Texas is one of the most contentious battlegrounds for this censorship fight with book challenges, canceled author visits and legislation that restricts access.
They are focused on the wrong problem.
Instead of restricting teenagers’ access to a few titles — most of which are related only to LGBTQ issues — we should be focused on the millions of adults who can’t read at all.
The Global Literacy Crisis
The United Nations agency UNESCO estimates that 763 million young people and adults around the world lack basic literacy skills. UNESCO sponsors International Literacy Day, celebrated Sept. 8, to raise awareness of the importance of literacy skills in building and maintaining peaceful and just societies.
Here at home, about 20% of Texas adults don’t have basic literacy skills. That’s 4.8 million Texans who “can’t read, write or do math well enough to get by on a daily basis,” says Steve Banta, executive director of Literacy Texas, a nonprofit based in Colleyville that provides professional development for volunteer instructors who work with adults in need of basic education.
Instead of spending time, money and emotion on books that present ideas that offend some people, we should be investing in solving the literacy problem that affects the most defenseless.
The Vulnerability of Illiteracy
“These people are very easy to take advantage of,” Banta says. Because they can’t read at even a third-grade level, they are easily scammed or may sign predatory documents that they can’t understand for a loan they can’t afford to pay. They may be unable to read a prescription bottle or determine if they’re getting the correct change at the grocery store. “They are vulnerable in every way in society.”
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