LITERACY AS FREEDOM

Literacy as Freedom

Literacy as Freedom

Introduction

No matter where we go, no matter what we do, we find ourselves dealing with reading or writing words somehow. At home, we may read emails from friends and family then reply back; we may read the TV Guide to check out what is on tonight; we may read the direction on the back of the package for preparing our food. In school, we have to know what our teachers write on the board; and we must turn in our homework on time. To get away from home and work, we plan our longing vacations with the help of traveling guide books and we find our perfect destinations on our maps. For shopping, we certainly would like to see the price tags before purchase. For our spare time, we may read a book for fun or we may read the news to see what is going on around our globe. Everything in our lives is directly or indirectly related to reading and writing. Without the ability to read and write, we will be lost in everything we do and everywhere we go. Like the water we drink and the air we breathe, literacy is inseparable with our daily lives, therefore illiteracy are to be eliminated in our society for good.

Discussion

Literacy gives us power; it puts us in control; and being in control of ourselves is freedom. Literacy is the bridge to information and knowledge in a society which written language exists and prevails. By reading and writing, we become aware of what is happening around us. By knowing what is happening, we reason, respond and share opinions. By reasoning, we raise questions. With questions, we look for answers and explanations. It is literacy that keeps us thinking. It is thinking that makes mankind great. It is thinking that gives us power over ourselves, our lives and things within our reach. Frederick Douglass, the author of the essay title "How I Learn to Read and Write" was born a slave. If not literacy, how would he ever raise the question to slavery? How would he ever know that slavery was wrong? Without literacy, He would be just like any other slave who accepted whichever destiny decided by their masters without a question asked. The more he read, the more he understood and hate about slavery. To him slavery was nothing but human exploitation; masters were nothing but "a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen [him] from [his] home, and in a strange land reduced [him] to slavery" (Douglass 278). Literacy opened up his innocent eyes to the ugly face of slavery. Literacy gave him power that finally set him free.

Literacy as Freedom

The United Nations on 13 February 2003 launched the Literacy Decade (2003-2012), under the theme, "Literacy as Freedom". With over 860 million adults worldwide who cannot read or write—one in five adults—and more than 113 million children out of school, efforts to extend literacy under the ...