The Rotary Club of Sparta met for its first regular meeting of the year, at noon, July 15, 2021, in the Fellowship Hall of Sparta First United Methodist Church.
Rotary Club of Sparta President Michael Hale welcomed Cathy Farley, director of White County Public Library, who addressed the club to bring attention to the problem of illiteracy.
Nearly 800 million people worldwide lack basic reading and writing skills—a total of 9 percent of the world population.
“In the United States, illiteracy hovers around 14 percent,” Farley stated. “That’s more than 43 million citizens of the world’s economic powerhouse unable to read.”
According to Farley, illiteracy negatively affects one’s health, earnings, welfare, productivity, and also increases the likelihood that one will be incarcerated. In fact, as many as 80 percent of incarcerated people in various countries are illiterate.
“People with poor literacy skills are more than twice as likely to be unemployed, they earn between 32 and 40 percent less than their literate counterparts, and 43 percent of Americans with poor literacy skills live in poverty,” Farley said.
All of this adds up to a problem not just for the illiterate individual, but also for society as a whole. It is estimated that illiteracy has cost the United States $300.8 billion in lost business productivity, lost earnings, welfare, crime, and other social justice problems. To be more specific, poor reading skills leads to an increased chance of dropping out of school, and each student that drops out of school costs our society $260,000 when lost earnings, taxes, and productivity are totaled.
“It is crucial that we focus on helping children learn to read at grade level by grade 3,” Farley asserted. “Until grade 3, you spend your time in school learning to read. After grade 3, you are reading to learn. If a child cannot read at grade level by grade 3, it is difficult to ever catch up.”
Luckily, we know the way to improve literacy rates. Farley suggests focusing on parental literacy incentives.
“We know that when parents who struggle with reading spend time reading with their child, literacy improves for both,” she said.
Literacy is one of Rotary International’s six areas of focus, which also include Peace and Conflict Prevention/Resolution, Disease Prevention & Treatment, Water & Sanitation, Maternal & Child Health, Economic & Community Development, and Protecting the Environment.
Locally, the Rotary Club of Sparta leads its Read With Me program in White County schools where Rotarians pair with students to assist with reading. Although the program has been paused due to the pandemic, the Rotarians are hopeful they will be able to resume the program soon.
“We have seen tremendous improvements in the test scores of these children, and all it takes is someone showing some interest and reading with them,” Farley said.
For more information on literacy, visit literacymatters.org or visit the White County Public Library.
The Rotary Club of Sparta meets each Thursday, a noon, in the Fellowship Hall of the Sparta First United Methodist Church. To learn more about the Rotary Club of Sparta, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RotaryClubSpartaTN and their website http://www.rotary-club-of-sparta-tennessee.org
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