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Illiteracy...
the Cause of War, Disease and Starvation
Hey, is it just me, or am I the only one who noticed... everyone under the age of 20, seems to have lost the ability to communicate.
They walk with their faces down, staring into their handheld devices. They grunt and cannot form complete sentences. Most don't make eye contact while talking with you.
With the high school drop out rate the highest in history, reading and writing are becoming skills of the past. Instead, we sit down in front of a glowing box and demand to be entertained.
The biggest problem facing the world today, the reason why we have wars, the reason why people blindly believe in what others say, is illiteracy.
Think about it.
If you could sit down and research the facts, you might not decide to get involved in a certain movement or ideal. You might decide the person is wacky, a fascist or a dictator, if you could read and think about what they've done, instead of just hearing and believing what you're told.
If people could read about aids and world hunger, maybe they'd would know where babies come from, and stop having so many that they cannot feed them. They'd also know enough to protect themselves from diseases, all kinds, regardless of how they are transmitted.
Now most American newspapers are written at a grade six reading level. What does that tell you about the "average" American?
Why are all the technology jobs going to China and India? Because they speak better English than our youth. They also take pride in workmanship, education and stick together as family units.
But if there's one good thing to come out of all this, it's the technology. The kids in China want to have all the same tech toys and goodies as North American youth.
It's getting very hard to hide in this world, or go the other way, and become a dictator. The technology has blessed us with awareness. And the time from awareness to action, has decreased exponentially with each new communication device.
So it's great that we have the technology, but we also need to teach the fundamentals of reading and writing. But not cursive writing and penmanship.
Yes, everyone should be able to print letters and sign their name. But isn't it time we started teaching typing in grade three instead of cursive handwriting?
And what about reading skills? It's a gift that once you have it, no one can ever take it away from you. Reading forms most of the what, of who and what you know.
In this day and age, the local Hershey chocolate factory is closing up, and heading to Mexico. Any job where you just need to throw a body at it, instead of a brain, is in jeopardy of being lost, to foreign competition, machines and lower wages.
We really need to start using our heads instead of our bodies. Not to say there isn't room for the finishing carpenters and other local trades. We certainly do need someone to install the pre-fabricated cabinets.
But we need to do something about stimulating the minds of our educators. To get them passionate and excited, so they can pass that enthusiasm on to the students.
We need to get people reading again. We need to put down the video games and talk with one another, before we lose the ability to do so.
Even if it's social chit chat in the elevator or before the event... practice your social skills. Ask the person standing next to you a few questions. You might be pleasantly surprised by how they respond, if you ask engaging questions about them.
Ask, What's been your experience with... something they're holding, wearing or about to buy. Ask, When it comes to - what they're wearing, holding or about to buy - what's the biggest mistake people make?
Chat about books and courses that you've read. Talk about something you've read, that has helped or benefitted you in some way. Spread the joy and passion of literacy wherever you go... and who knows...
Maybe, just maybe, if enough of us try to get young people reading and talking again, we might just avoid wars, world hunger and epidemics like aids.
Now I'll share something, that was written by Robert Malthus over 200 years ago... but no one except the social elite could read back then.
(It's why we had unrest in Europe for centuries, the first and second world wars. It's also the same trouble with the "third world" countries, Afghanistan and much of the middle east. They have over a 50% illiteracy rate! They don't make their own decisions, they just blindly do what they're told by their leaders.)
According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, ""Robert Malthus was an English economist and clergyman. In Essay on Population (1798) he argued that without the practice of "moral restraint" the population tends to increase at a greater rate than its means of subsistence, resulting in the population checks of war, famine, and epidemic.""
Having skimmed most of the 300 page text, I sum it up a different way. Organisms multiply to the limit of their food supply, then overpopulate, causing misery, disease and starvation for many. Take a look under a microscope at a few drops of pond water, and it will will play out in front of your eyes. The whole earth is just a matter of scale.
But thanks to the technology, the earth is shrinking. What you witness can be sent to me over the internet, or mobile networks, in mere seconds. The time from AWARENESS to ACTION is shrinking...
What are you going to do about it? How will you pitch in, to save the planet. To educate, impassion, empower, encourage thought, through spreading awareness and literacy to every corner of the globe.
Malthus is right... but has humanity learned its lesson? Only time will tell.
The literacy of our children, will give us the best chance we have to survive as a species, on this tiny, little, fragile planet. If you want the future to have a chance, give the gift of literacy, reading and writing, wherever you go.
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