Okay, so the new literacy statistics seem unbelievable to me.
I have been thinking about it for three days, trying to figure out what is bothering me so much.
At least one third of New Brunswickers who live in urban centres and have access to university education are illiterate. Move to the north of the province or out of the cities and it rises to three quarters of all people being illiterate. Three quarters!
Can you imagine that this is true?
All told it means that more than half of us have no hope of ever getting a high school diploma, or even earning a decent living.
I want us to think of this from two different angles.
First, whose fault is it?
There are certainly many people who analyze the world and see it from an individualistic viewpoint who would answer that it is their fault. Stay in school or pay the consequences. That way of looking at everything blames the individual for not pulling themselves up by the bootstrap.
The world is certainly not black and white, and it is true that there are people who choose certain things, a life of crime, living on the streets or to put career ahead of family. Some people do choose to drop out of school and leave the world of education behind, to be sure.
The other side would say that society is to blame.
We do not educate our young properly. We do not treat people equally and so create social stigmatization. We do not put tax dollars into education. We are so self focused that we do not do things for other people.
Again, all of this is in fact true, while not being the single mitigating factor for anything.
Life is a combination of problems and the truth is that there are so many areas in which we as individuals and we as a society are falling down. We all make bad decisions, but too often we hide behind policy or blame others instead of trying to figure out how to do it better.
So I think people should buck up a bit and take life seriously enough to want to learn to read; but I also think we should buck up a bit and make this a place where we help each other want to succeed.
Which brings me to my second major concern; ultimately I think it will not happen.
You see, I have a sneaking suspicion that it could not have become this way without someone wanting it to be so. I mean, over half of the population unable to master the basics of their own language? There has to be a conspiracy here.
People who cannot read probably cannot easily vote. They cannot easily write letters of complaint. They cannot double check facts when a politician speaks. They cannot read the fine print on their cell phone contracts. The list could go on and I am sure many of you could come up with reasons that those in power would want a less 'able' society.
I am only being half facetious here.
I cannot believe that there are that many people that cannot read. I cannot understand how or why that could even begin to be possible. As far as I remember almost everyone I knew could read quite young. In fact, the targeted 'reading age' when you write things for mass consumption is a grade six reading level. To read a newspaper, or a novel, or a political tract, you really don't need a vocabulary beyond grade six, and everyone goes to grade six!
And another thing, why are we at the lowest end of the literacy stepping stone while it continues to get better and better as you go west across the country?
Take a look at the map yourself if you want to see a visual representation: www.ccl-cca.ca/cclflash/proseliteracy/map_canada_e.html
How can it be that as soon as you pass Winnipeg literacy keeps on climbing as you go west?
I don't have an answer to the real reason it is like this. I suspect there is truth in everything I have said so far, including the conspiracy.
What really gets me though is that the world is not as I imagine it to be. I must be incredibly naive, I suppose, but I figured almost everyone could read this column if they wanted to. I thought that for the most part everyone who wanted one could get a job. It does sound pretty naive, eh?
What is stopping society from working though? Capitalism was my first thought, but Marxists did not fare any better; and National Socialists even worse. Apparently almost every commune, communal work farm, and open marriage is doomed to failure as well.
Someone has to come up with a better system really quickly. Because I fear things are just getting worse.
Perhaps it helps just to have the literacy stats before us. Perhaps this will force the government to step up and ask why we should be content with allowing this level of problem.
If we are truly going to make New Brunswick the place it should be, progressive, industrial, metropolitan, and a leader in every field, we are each going to have to take a good hard look at our misconceptions. Then we are all going to have to shoot a little higher and give the hand out and step up to those who need it the most.
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