Friday, July 2, 2010

Attack Poverty Through Literacy [Blog Action Day 2008]

 
 

Sent to you by Sword44 via Google Reader:

 
 

via Lifehacker: charity by Jason Fitzpatrick on 10/15/08

"What the hell, you got a room in your house just filled with books? That's stupid," was one of the many memorable quotes from my first semester teaching in a school filled with at-risk and impoverished kids. Right now you're reading a productivity and technology blog. You're no stranger to literacy and you read for enjoyment. All day every day you process thousands upon thousands of words to make meaning of and enrich your world. As an educator both at the high school and collegiate level, I'm confronted again and again with children and adults who are only semi-literate nearly drowning in a world they can't process the way you and I can. Somehow, every year I find myself with hundreds of students that regard reading a book the same way they regard getting kicked in the groin. If a student makes it out of their formal schooling only semi-literate, their passage into adulthood is painfully crippled. All the social programs in the world won't be able to stabilize that person's life as much as the confidence that being a competent and literate adult would. Photo by Tom@HK. More »

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

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