UNDERSTANDING ADULT ILLITERACY IN WAYNE COUNTY, NC by Jennifer Ulz

Have you ever thought what your life would be like if you couldn’t read? Imagine how different a typical day would be. 

You wake up in the morning, and probably one of the first things you do is check your cell phone for messages. What if you couldn’t read them? Maybe not a great loss. Not much good news out there anyway. You order the same thing every day at your favorite coffee stop before work, so it doesn’t matter that you can’t read the menu. 

Maybe you don’t need to read to do your job – you work in manufacturing – but you still need to understand written instructions and safety policies. You have good friends working beside you who help you to learn what you need to know. But, what if they’re out sick? Or what if they miss something important? How do you feel about not having that level of control?

Think about your children. If you can’t read, you can’t understand your child’s report card or the paper she brought home on school violence. You have to ask your son to tell you what the paper says. You take your father to the doctor, but you can’t read the instructions on how he needs to take his new medication. Are you sure you remember what the doctor or pharmacist told you?

 After work, you want to try a new recipe your friend wrote down for you, but you can’t understand the ingredients. You finally settle down to watch some television. A college basketball game is on. No problem watching that, but there’s this pesky little crawl along the bottom. What are you missing?

How different would your day-to-day existence be if you couldn’t read? How many opportunities for a better life would you be missing?

The Right for a Better Quality of Life

We all take a lot of things for granted in living our day-to-day lives – some large, some small. As Americans, we usually don’t have to worry about safety or freedom. We’re generally left alone to live our lives as best we can. Most of us find ways to cope and do what we need to do. But sometimes we want more, and, if we grew up in this country, we grew up with the idea that we have the right to want a better life, for ourselves and for our children.

I have been going through a lot of introspection the last few years. After working for more than twenty years in higher education in several capacities, including teaching, research, and administration, I got burned out and decided I needed a change. So, I investigated. I read, and I talked to people, and I discovered that my passions are animal welfare and lifelong learning. I believe in my right to try and live the way I want to live, and to help others do the same.

I learn mostly by reading. Reading opens up new worlds and new experiences. Through the printed word, I can better understand other people’s lives, past and present. I can imagine experiences I’ll never have, for better or worse. My life is better because of this. I take for granted my ability to read and to learn and to communicate. However, I know there are many people in my community who can’t read, or who can’t even speak English, and I wanted to understand more about their experiences and more about adult literacy

Adult Literacy in Wayne County, NC

According to Literacy Connections, 1 in 4 adults in Wayne County read below a 3^rdgrade level and 1 in 10 are illiterate and cannot read at all. 58% of the adults in Wayne County read below a 9^thgrade level. Think about it. 

Think about what adult illiteracy costs the county and society. Again, according to Literacy Connections, adult illiteracy costs $45 million each year in lost revenue and over $3 million in additional costs such as health care, welfare, and other social services. 

This problem, of course, is not unique to Wayne County. Wayne County has the second highest rate of illiteracy when compared to 25 North Carolina counties with similar size and demographics.

I’ve also learned that all adult literacy is not equal. There are three general types of literacy:

      - PROSE -  reading news stories, brochures, instructional materials

- DOCUMENT - job applications, payroll forms, maps, drug/food labels

- QUANTITATIVE - balancing a checkbook, completing an order form

People’s abilities to comprehend each of these types of written information vary, and those abilities are classified into five levels of literacy:

·      Level 1 – locate the time of meeting on a form

·      Level 2 – locate an intersection on a street map

·      Level 3 – interpret instructions from an 

                       appliance warranty

·      Level 4 – compare two metaphors in a poem

·      Level 5 – interpret a brief phrase from a lengthy 

                       news article

This is a lot of information. But the learner in me is always questioning information. I want to know where this information comes from – what are the sources? Is this really true, and how do they know? What is the latest research on the causes of adult literacy? What new programs are effectively addressing the issue? What is the best way to teach adults to read? What does all this really mean, and what can we do to help change things for the better?

I want to explore all these questions, and more, and share them with you, so that we can all become better informed about the issues and what we can do to effect change in our community.

It’s all about Individual Experience

It’s all well and good to know the big picture, but these are also individual issues. Each person has unique abilities and unique experiences. Each person affected by illiteracy has a story. One of the most well-known is about Tom Cruise and his experience of not being able to read until after he gained success as an actor. I know this is not a typical instance, but then, no individual’s story is typical. There are many inspirational stories in our community, and I’d also like to share some of these stories with you in this blog. 

With the resources available from Literacy Connections, hundreds of Wayne County adults are improving their English reading skills, and thus are improving their quality of life. Volunteer tutors are helping to make this happen. These folks are very giving of their time, and they have stories too.

Here is what I believe in a nutshell. I came across this idea in the animal rescue world, but it applies equally to literacy:

Teaching one person to read won’t change 

the world, but for that one person, 

the world will change forever.

It’s all about the individuals in our community, and our respect for each other. It’s about the right that each of us has to improve our life. And it’s about our desire to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to expand their world through increasing their ability to read.

In this blog, I’ll be sharing research, stories, and opinions on the issue of literacy in our community. My hope is that readers will join in the conversation, so that we can all connect with each other and help Wayne County become stronger.