Education As Weaponry

An excerpt from my manuscript Are you Aware:The Voice of Justice.Where can I begin to unpack the importance of education and literacy? This is my sweet spot right here, as I’m fully persuaded that this is the social issue that has called me to partner alongside with advocacy, fervor, and tenacious invasion. What can I possibly begin to unravel that would give justice to arming an individual with the ability to read and write? Do we, as a global community, clearly understand the consequences upon which can plague a person without access to and the right to learn through a quality education? John Perkins, a community development activist once stated, “Education should have meaning; it should be able to impact and change lives…it is important to have a wider purpose for education-a purpose that positively affects the condition of people.” Agreed! Yet, according to recent data, here’s what we know and what we can connect to the ramifications of illiteracy in America alone based on The National Institute for Literacy and Institute for Study of Adult Literacy’s findings.WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT ILLITERACY IN AMERICA

• As many as 23% of the adult American population (40-44 million) is functionally illiterate (Level 1 according to the National Adult Literacy Survey), lacking basic skills beyond a fourth-grade level.
• Illiteracy is widespread, a problem in every community, not limited to any race, region or socioeconomic class.

ILLITERACY AND ITS IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY

• Adult illiteracy costs society an estimated $240 billion each year in lost industrial productivity, unrealized tax revenues, welfare, crime, poverty, and related social ills.

ILLITERACY AND HEALTH

• Adults with low-level reading skills frequently suffer from health problems because the lack the ability to read medical directions, health-related literature or prescription labels. Chronic health conditions may go improperly monitored by patients who are functionally illiterate and the overall well-being of these individuals may worsen overtime causing frequent doctor or emergency room visits, hospitalization, or even death.

ILLITERACY AND THE WORKPLACE

• According to the NALS, 40% of the labor force in the United States has limited skills.
• American businesses lose more than $60 billion in productivity each year to employee’s lack of basic skills. (NALS)

ILITERACY AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

• The rate of illiteracy in America’s correctional systems is over 60% (National Institutes of Health)

ILLITERACY AND AMERICA’S YOUTH

• The saddest casualty of the illiteracy in America are the children who are affected by intergenerational illiteracy.
• Children of disadvantaged parents begin their school life behind their peers. Parents with minimal or no reading skills often cannot provide the kind of support their children need to do well in school.
• Analysis has shown a direct correlation between young people’s test scores and the grade level attained by their parents.

Naturally, and in most cases, our minds do not make these kinds of connections between things like illiteracy and crime, health care, and it’s impact on the economy. A typical connection between illiteracy and a person would be the understanding of the direct impact it would have on the ability to get a good paying job. Yet, the dangers of illiteracy do not stop there. They only start there.I have seen first hand the dire impact illiteracy has on people locally and globally. Not having the ability to read and write puts a person in an immediate disadvantage. Imagine trying to get around a city if you can’t read the signs well? Imagine trying to find a job to feed your family if you can’t fill out the job application because you can’t read it? Imagine what that will do to the dignity of a person, and the measures, the illegal measures one will go to feed a son or daughter, to feed one’s self? We need to make this connection.In my classroom alone, I can connect the dots between my at-risk students who have been incarcerated and their reading levels. Without profiling or stereotyping, most of my students, males in particular who have been in and out of prison read below their grade level as young adults by the time they reached my door. I have scores and student-work to prove this. However, for the sake of confidentiality, I won’t disclose that information. Yet, how do you explain young adults who are reaching twenty years old and reading at the 3^rd and 4^th grade levels? Crime and gang activity can be connected to illiteracy. Prison and illiteracy often go hand in hand. The social consequences are devastating and affect us all as a society. As a teacher, I am committed to increase literacy levels around the world, knowing the outcome if I don’t.Illiteracy and poverty are also married. Naturally, it causes a chasm between comfortable living and struggling to meet basic needs. So where can we stand as God’s people in this issue? If you are reading my words you are already in a better place. We can’t forget those who can’t. If God’s people would give a tutoring lesson, schools supplies, and the like, we are arming people with a weapon that they can use to defend themselves against poverty, crime, and hopelessness. I’m a living testament and witness to empowering an individual with the ability to read and write. We are creating a system of sustainability where after we are gone, they’re more likely to find a job, read signs, applications, labels, fighting off the grips of poverty etc. It reminds me of the saying of the fish. Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. This should be a focus. I know it is mine.Mission El Salvador 2011In the summer of 2011, my team and myself went to El Salvador. Since then, I went three more times. The mission was, and continues to be literacy and the promotion of education. We were able to distribute 200 backpacks to children in various cities, some including two orphanages. They were filled with school supplies and children’s books. We also brought toiletries, food, and clothes and even toys for the kids…but education was the bulk of our mission. Here’s why. All this in honor of the saying previously mentioned, “If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he eats forever.” This is how I perceive arming an individual with the ability to read and write…and dream!Tia Ana’s orphanage in San Salvador-Photographer: Jasmine LopezEducation is a massive weapon that can create a system of sustainability for people around the world. Hence, my desire to go global with this message! If we encourage and equip others to pursue their education, and they learn how to read and write among a plethora of other things, they potentially stand a fighting chance to lift themselves from poverty moving forward. Education and obtaining skills that glean from education puts a person in a better place to obtain a job or business that will sustain a family.One of the hardest things to cure and resurrect are dreams that lie dormant in the imagination of a person. If a person stops dreaming, he stops living. If a person stops hoping for better, he settles for what is and stays vulnerable to what will be. What’s more, it will encourage dreams and hopes. If we can get individuals to hope again and dream again, we can get them to hope and dream themselves out of their present situation! That’s the power of education at its finest! It not only has the capacity to generate income and means of survival, but it initiates and propels the imagination and the dreams of others, causing them to envision a better life for themselves and their loved ones. It fans to flame a tenacity and courage that is the human spirit to then chase after that dream until it becomes a reality. One of the hardest things to cure and resurrect are dreams that lie dormant in the imagination of a person. If a person stops dreaming, he stops living. If a person stops hoping for better, he settles for what is and stays vulnerable to what will be.Thus, the reason I’m such a big proponent for education and early literacy. We have to continue to inspire others to learn and read and grow and aspire. It’s one of the most powerful chain breakers that plague our communities with the ever-present reaper of poverty. Dreams and the dreams that lie within the dreamer are strong enough to release families from generational patterns of poverty and disdain! I’ve seen it and I believe it. If you see something greater, if you envision a better life, if you have the audacity to chase it, you’re more than likely to achieve it. There’s nothing more unstoppable that a tenacious spirit that relentlessly chases after his dreams and goals until he basks in the aftermath of achievement and survival. Nothing!The Book LadyI aspire to be called “The Book Lady.” I want to be a local source and global force where if they see me coming with my team, they know I’m coming with books and learning tools. They’ll just know. I long to specialize in back to school parties all over the world with dedicated and spirit filled volunteers. Do you remember being read to when you were little? Do you remember sitting next to someone as they read a story that peeled back an imaginary world of color, characters, a moral truth, and fantasyland that tantalized your senses? Do you remember the connections you made as you were read to? You identified animals and colors and shapes just to name some. You were introduced to the world of storytelling and all its magic. Many children don’t have this experience. Many children don’t have books in their room, on their shelves, and in their homes. Studies show that being read to and exposed to the written word does wonderful things for the learner. It introduces language and the identification of people, places, and things. It evokes imaginative play, inspiring the audience to see the world at a new dimension. It whets the appetite for learning and the continuation of learning. It’s that’s powerful.…to learn is to live, to read is to redeem a world of possibility….In this journey that we’re on, it’s important to discover what makes us angry, what bother us, and interestingly, what brings us the most joy. It is often in that place where God calls us to heal. In my intentional assessments, I’ve discovered that I hate wasted potential! I hate watching people whither away, suppressing their potential with hopelessness and defeat. And I hate systems that impose this type of helplessness on another individual as their human right to thrive in any given society. I hate wasted potential spiritually and academically. Understanding the power of human potential coupled with a powerful God enrages me with a holy indignation to chase those that feel unmotivated to tap in, tap into the potential that God gave them to dream, hope, imagine, and live! I see it in my classroom as I arm wrestle with my students who want to sleep and put music on rather than writing and reading to learn. I walk right up to them and say,” You are not going to waste 90 minutes in Mrs. G’s class to sit and chill, you either get on task like I know you can, or you leave! Not here, not ever!” I see it in my ministry when I sit and counsel those in spiritual atrophy. I find myself chasing them, encouraging them, challenging them in the name of their potential, in the name of their God. Find what bothers you, it may be the place God calls you to work! In the Circle Maker…Having said that, it has become a deep conviction of mine, and ultimately my message. I’m now an advocate for the importance of education, learning, and early literacy. It has evolved into my weapon that will fight poverty and famine, hopelessness and bankrupt dreams. Books, learning, and education aren’t looked at often as necessities, but rather an extra, expensive, and an option. In addition, education is denied pending on your zip code and gender. This cannot be. Education is a fundamental right in which all persons should have access to and understand the importance of their education and what it will do to their futures, the cupboards, their bellies, their minds, the contributions they will ultimately give to their communities. The book lady wants to make it clear: to learn is to live, to read is to redeem a world of possibility, to be educated is to empower ones self towards unique and self-sustaining contributions that will in turn better our world.I have to say, I’ve seen personally the power of education. As an inner-city teacher, I have seen statistics being thwarted before my very eyes when many of my students walk down the aisle every June with their cap and gown. The symbolism in this is astronomical for me. The pride that swells in my heart, knowing I had something to do with all their success, one lesson at a time, penetrating words of encouragement, prayers, and support that I give all and as many students as I can. My own education has afforded me so many opportunities, I know their education will afford them similar opportunities; thus, the grave importance of each diploma in hand.