editorial
in other words
Bowling for literacy
You can’t put a price tag on literacy. Few skills are as important in all walks of life.
An individual’s ability to read, write and communicate translates into an ability to function in a job, in a family, and in society. Literacy allows us to solve problems, achieve goals, develop knowledge and create opportunities.
According to Literacy BC, a provincial organization that promotes and supports literacy and learning, more than 40 per cent of adults in this province have low literacy skills. This means they may have trouble finding and keeping jobs. It means they may not be able to get the information they need to protect their health, safety or legal rights.
The organization provides many thought-provoking facts. Did you know that:
Canadians with the lowest literacy skills have higher rates of unemployment (26 per cent) than those with the highest skills (four per cent).
Twenty per cent of recent high school graduates lack sufficient literacy skills to access post-secondary learning.
Each additional year of education a person receives is worth 8.3 per cent of their pay cheque.
There is an increasing demand for higher literacy skills in the workplace, even for entry into positions where the skills are underused. Jobs that do not require much reading and writing are disappearing (e.g., in resource-based industries such as fishing and forestry).
As many as 75 per cent of Canadian inmates have low literacy skills.
Forty percent of Canadians over age 65 have not completed primary school, compared to four per cent of Canadians between 26 and 35. Poor literacy skills lower the quality of life for seniors and increase their health and safety risks.
An adult literacy survey released four years ago shows that among 21 countries Canada consistently outranked the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Alarmingly, however, the study revealed that the gap between people with low and high literacy skills was far larger in Canada than in European countries such as Denmark, Norway, Germany, Finland and Sweden.
One of the study’s conclusions was that literacy is not a fixed asset. It operates on the “use-it-or-lose-it” principle. Those who read, write and use numbers regularly have higher literacy levels. Some less-educated people who use their literacy skills regularly have higher literacy levels than well-educated people who do not practice their literacy skills.
All of us behind this magazine are equally committed to produce a good read that appeals to a wide range of readers across the region.
We believe a good human-interest story reaches far beyond its printed version. It provokes thoughts, stimulates debate, gets passed on, builds bridges, and sometimes increases understanding and changes behaviour.
Several of this issue’s stories touch directly on literary arts. On the next page you’ll find a piece by our Queen Charlottes reporter, Heather Ramsay, about new books by local authors.
Farther into the magazine, there’s an article by Terrace freelance writer Sarah Zimmerman about a former Terrace resident, whose interesting book has just been published in Canada.
Still in the works is Smithers-resident Sheila Peter’s new novel. In our regular creative-writing feature, you’ll get a taste of her research in Guatemala.
But we wanted to do something more for literacy—to stimulate children and youth to read. The result is Northern Brights: a literacy contest for kids.
Sponsored by Scholastic, the contest encourages kids to pick a book from their local library, draw a picture inspired by the story, and either mail the drawing directly to us, or drop it off at any of the participating libraries. Turn to page 7 for more information, and to find out how your kids can win free books.
And stay tuned; there will be a new literacy contest in each issue of Northword. They will not just be about learning to read; we want to encourage reading to learn.
It’s time to strike together. Now the ball is in your lane.
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