A Successful Future Through Literacy

Humanities-focused conversations* around life, good books and the impact of conversations on children’s developing literacy includes all modes of engagement throughout life in clear and joyful mastery of communication. The result of coming-of-age in families and schools with rich cultures of literacy is to become a lifelong reader. Children who grow up in families and schools where there is a culture of literacy excellence can, as lifelong readers and writers, predictably do well in school and later in known or new careers and workplaces.??

When poking around the What Works Clearinghouse and the World’s Largest Lesson websites, looking for ideas and implementations of other strategies to help children become fully and confidently literate, and then reflecting upon how stagnant reading scores are in schools that adopt these various programs that work, one must start with readers’ life experiences.?

Lifelong literacy, of course, should be the ultimate academic goal of any basic education that is provided for any citizen of the world. The value of inquiry, information gathering, and processing new information with the current context is unquestionable for all students. It is not simply of value for the currently popular “career or college readiness.” Though many schools and school systems these days claim that their curricula are designed to ensure success either in higher education or in a career or job, those outcomes occur beyond schools’ and families’ reach, long after their chicks are out of the nest.?

So, if parents want to rear today’s children to be successful in whatever they do after leaving formal education, we’ll need first to accept our complete and inalterable ignorance about what today’s graduates might end up doing in 10 or 20 years of unknowable futures. A significant portion of today's careers won’t be needed then. Another huge number that most of us haven’t even thought of will open to those new graduates, preparing to meet the challenges in those future decades.?

Creating a literacy culture is a natural priority-goal for schools. It opens a thousand doors to lives for the students to consider. Similarly, full literacy will equip young adults in sagging industries to seek, discover and access the necessary resources to refresh themselves.?

Today, we find ourselves amid huge market shifts, leaving many students currently prepared for success feeling left behind in just a few years. Those who will be able to adequately respond to these huge cultural shifts will either be well-prepared to individually respond to shifts in their environments.??

Youngsters who can leverage their literacies for exploring new employment or business possibilities for making themselves increasingly more valuable will require that schools and families shift their focus from their kids doing well in school to an education for relearning throughout life.?

One must wonder when that shift in what educators and parents value in future-oriented schooling will begin.?

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*Humanities-Focused conversations: Discussion around the book-based themes of life (e.g., Conflict, Community, Fairness, Friendship, Greed, Interdependence, Perseverance, Sacrifice, etc.) instead of reading comprehension “skills.” ?