Reading Maketh A Full Man - On The Importance of Adult Literacy

According the 16th edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, the following is attributed to Francis Bacon: Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. Conference and writing are predicated on Reading’s ability to fill the mind and spirit. Many in this country go to bed each night with “empty stomachs.”

One might expect that literacy in the United States should approach 100%, but this is not the case. I am not writing about an immigrant population who come from their own countries with diverse educational experience and varied desire to learn the language of their adoptive country. I mean the native born American—the men and women who somehow “slipped through educational cracks” and have spent their adult lives working low paying jobs and living unfulfilled lives. These adults cannot help their children with homework. They must rely on a handshake and the trustworthiness of others to conduct their business affairs. There are a lot of these people, a disturbing number. They are very adept at hiding their reading problems; very defensive if challenged.

For several years I was a volunteer tutor in a local adult literacy program. I learned a lot in those dozen years—about bravery, trust, humility, determination, and persistence. It takes an enormous amount of courage for a 40 year old mother to ask for basic reading and writing help so she can help her children achieve a better life than the one she’s had. It’s humbling for a 65-year old man who has successfully operated a business on trust alone to come to three classes a week to get help with heretofore undiagnosed dyslexia. Yet he comes to every class, every week. A 25-year old developmentally disabled adult can only succeed in a new group independent living situation if we can help improve specific “on the job” reading comprehension. It is very difficult for her, but she persists. A young immigrant woman comes to class after working a night cleaning job. She has to leave early to care for her young children when her husband leaves for work. This woman wants so badly to be a nurse. She’s bright and indefatigable, but ultimately must choose between family and her dreams when her spouse loses his job.

Every adult “student” has a compelling need. The four I have described only hint at the range and variety of unfulfilled needs. Each person’s situation is unique. Most of us don’t realize that so many battle illiteracy every waking hour of every day. Reading is so natural and unconscious to us that we can barely comprehend what it’s like to be illiterate.

The origin of each person’s problem is not important—and we certainly cannot judge. Often the older ones left school during the Great Depression and drifted around the country. So many come with a lifetime of derisive baggage! They have been called “dumb” or “lazy” throughout their lives because they seek to hide their inability to read. Some had to leave school to contribute to their family’s survival by bringing in a weekly paycheck. A few needed to get away from terrible living conditions so the value of an education was a low priority when physical survival was at stake. One of my students sported arms that were scarred and discolored. When I had earned enough of his trust to talk about it I was told that the burns had occurred on the job. He had been told to bring some dry ice to the loading dock. Because he couldn’t read, he didn’t realize that he should not just pick up the ice with bare hands and arms. His arms took a long time to heal; the memory never did.

Lately I have been reading in the news that medical illiteracy can kill you. A recent study, lead by Dr. David Baker of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, discovered that at least 25% of patients (65 and older) could not understand written health information, read prescription labels for directions and contraindications, or understand basic instructions on how to prepare for medical tests. A few years ago I was researching the reading level of medical information for a consumer health information center. I found that the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) was written at a level appropriate to a junior or senior college student. The New England Journal of Medicine was aimed at graduate level. Even the Home Edition of the Merck Manual (1st edition) targeted a 9th grade reading level when I surveyed a portion of an article on breast cancer. Only a few medical websites, e.g. MedlinePlus, even have “Easy to Read” sections. Yet research indicates that about 60% of Internet users search for health information online. As a librarian I know that low literacy health books, written for adult audiences, are scarce.

Are publishers, health web providers, and medical personnel presuming a basic, adequate literacy that may not attain for all? The premise seemingly fails for most of my former students, as well as for 25% of the elderly! Are those who hide their literacy anorexia getting information to sustain life, live decent lives, obtain good jobs, and get the health information they deserve? Can we afford to turn away so many from the table of plenty? This is not saving the whales or closing the ozone hole over Antarctica. This is your patient, client, neighbor, employee, family member. It’s in your face, if you’d only look. What can YOU bring to the table?