Lack of education hurts the people
 
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The Spectrum
 
It seems that we can't open the newspaper these days without another article about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its members jumping out at us.

Some time ago, the Spectrum ran an Associated Press article on this subject. The majority of the article neither surprised or shocked me, but one small statement has haunted me since then. The reporter, with a private detective as his source of information, stated that " most (of the) residents are considered to be functionally illiterate." (Travis Reed, The Spectrum 3/6/05).

I suppose in an area where public schooling is shunned and private schooling is abandoned around the sixth grade, this statement shouldn't affect me so much, but I truly feel that this is one more crime being committed against the "faithful" victims of this church.

Noted educator Paulo Freire once said, "literacy is the practice of freedom." Logically then, people who are illiterate cannot truly be free. Historically, literacy has been used as a tool of leverage by the advantaged few to dominate and control the illiterate majority. Why would church leaders do such a thing to people they claim to be helping?

In the popular movie and novel "The Village," by M. Night Shaymalan, the leaders of a small, disconnected, community use ignorance and fear to compel their friends and children to live a certain lifestyle in order to "protect" them. There is an unsettling resemblance between this story and our neighborhood communities.

The National Institute for Literacy estimates that 70 percent of welfare recipients are low or illiterate, and that 43 percent of adults with very low literacy rates live in poverty. Worldwide, 70 percent of adults who lack basic literacy skills are women. According to a report by the U.S. Department of Education, "the single most significant predictor of children's literacy is their mothers' literacy level."

One report noted, "mothers' illiteracy and lack of schooling directly disadvantage their young children. Low schooling translates into poor quality of care for children and then higher infant and child mortality and malnutrition."

Recent studies have found extensive evidence that low literacy, poor health and early death are inexorably linked. Health-care costs have also been shown to be higher for those with low literacy rates. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect the dots between these statistics and many of the problems in these communities.

An old Chinese proverb says, "If you plant corn, you help someone for a year. If you plant a tree, you help someone for a hundred years. If you educate a child, you help all future generations."

Experience has shown just how difficult it can be to help those who do not trust us and do not want to be helped, but perhaps something as simple as working to increase the literacy rate in these communities would have far greater impact than we could ever dare to hope for. I believe it is probably one of the best ways we can help our neighbors in these communities.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published August 11, 2005
 
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