Poverty and Potential Can Co-Exist

By Mark W.F. Condon, Unite for Literacy Vice President

There are glaring contrasts between the lives of children from homes with comfortable incomes and those?who are living closer to the poverty level because poverty shrivels all opportunities one might name—even in wealthy countries.

According to a report from the National Center for Children in Poverty, nearly half of all children in the U.S. live in low-income families and more than one in five live in poverty. Given that, the average classroom predictably includes five kids whose lives?are negatively impacted by such circumstances. Research shows that living in poverty inflicts?immediate and lasting damage to the chances of those five students basically succeeding or even flourishing in their lives.

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, “Poverty compounds a child’s risk of experiencing behavioral, social, emotional and health challenges. Child poverty also reduces academic outcomes, undercutting youthful students’ capacities to learn, graduate high school and more.”

In addition, these burdens are rarely temporary. Their impacts are carried into adulthood and on to further generations, perpetuating a crippling cycle of generational family poverty.

The Unite for Literacy’s Global Book Desert Map depicts areas where books in homes are scarce, which unsurprisingly correspond to areas where many people live in poverty. The availability of books in homes is identified by color—from?dark green book garden areas where books are abundant to bright red book deserts where there are very few if any books in children's homes.

The positive attitude regarding lifelong learning that comes so naturally to those who have access to many books and choose to read and discuss them is a predictor of school success. Conversely, low levels of book availability offer young children little chance to become lifelong readers and learners. Additionally, the connections between nutrition, economic levels and books in the home offer a critical look at the educational potentials of the children who live in book deserts.

However, glimmers of hope are found in current statistics showing the prevalence of Internet-connected smartphones. As of April 2023, there were 5.18 billion internet users worldwide. That’s 64.6 percent of the global population (predicted to reach 90 percent by 2030). With the help of such “smart” technology increasing numbers of children can connect to the uplifting power of books and minimize the chances?that their family’s poverty?will steal their youth and cloud their futures.

Combined with local libraries (which more and more offer their borrowers digital books), smartphones and other digital devices can offer a path forward to children who otherwise have limited or no access to age-appropriate reading material. Along with the free, award winning* Unite for Literacy digital library, a simple internet search for “free children’s books” will yield dozens of appealing options for obtaining good books to read.

Through the power of technology, it’s positively, potentially possible to turn book deserts into book gardens and grow avid lifelong readers everywhere.

*The Unite for Literacy library was recognized by the American Association of School Librarians as a ‘BEST’ internet resource.