Literacy is Foundational for Families

Literacy is Foundational for Families
By Austin Dickson

Parent involvement is a key ingredient for children to successfully learn. It’s often assumed that parents have all of the skills necessary to be engaged with their child’s education, to know who the teachers are, and how to advocate at their child’s school.

More than one million adults in Georgia are low-literate. Limited reading and math skills hinder them from getting a job or a better job, and from day-to-day activities that many of us take for granted – like getting directions or reading a note home from school.

Governor Nathan Deal has proclaimed this week, September 14 through 18, as Literacy Action Week. Throughout Georgia, hundreds of teachers – whether hard-working volunteers or paid instructors – work with adult learners not just this week, but every day, to advance students towards a better job, high school equivalency completion, more fluent English, vocational training, or our strong technical colleges and University System. GED instructors at technical colleges, retired teachers in local libraries, and volunteers at civic centers or religious congregations all work diligently to improve adults’ basic literacy.

Literacy Action, the largest adult literacy nonprofit in Georgia, helps hundreds of adults build their skills. It also recruits and trains volunteers to teach people eager to unlock the power of reading. As the first and often best teachers of young people, literate parents are essential in creating reading environments at home, and parents with math and reading skills can better help with homework and engage with their child’s teacher. And it’s not just in parenting; our economy needs a literate workforce, too. Can you imagine a truck driver unable to read signs on the freeway? Or a healthcare work that struggles with math? These are real-world issues with real-world consequences.

During this special month – National Literacy Month – literacy organizations throughout the United States are celebrated for helping to create a healthy workforce and strong parents. But while nonprofits and community groups do their part, we need you, too. We need you to donate your time or your talent to help someone else. More than 1 million Georgians’ struggles with reading or math have preventing them from graduating high school. Encouragement, tutoring help, adult literacy classes all help us in changing lives, one word at a time.

Literacy is absolutely necessary to forging a path out of poverty and being an effective parent. It is the skill that can change the trajectory of someone’s life.

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Austin Dickson is the Executive Director of Literacy Action in Atlanta.

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Austin Dickson
Executive Director
Literacy Action, Inc.
100 Edgewood Avenue, NE | Suite 650
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
404-818-7323
adickson@literacyaction.org
http://www.literacyaction.org/