Members of the Ozark Spring chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution recently joined West Plains Mayor Mike Topliff as he signed a proclamation for to observe National Family Literacy Day on Nov. 1.
National Family Literacy Day was established in 1994 by the 103rd Congress and is celebrated each year across America with a focus on the honoring the importance of family, building a nation of readers and increasing children’s abilities to achieve a higher quality of life nationwide.
“Literacy is key to solving healthcare, unemployment, poverty, and crime rates” say officials with the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, which has championed the cause since 1994. Topliff’s proclamation emphasized the impact that parents and guardians have on their children’s learning and requested that they “challenge” their children to read.
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 21% of adults in the U.S., or about 43 million people, can be categorized as illiterate or functionally illiterate. Ozark Spring Literacy Chair Mary Ann Mutrux further shared that as many as one in six adults struggle with reading and writing, noting, “These staggering numbers affect the everyday aspects of their lives, such as an ability to fill out an application, take medication, read important safety information at work and in the public.”
She added that children “involved in family learning with a parent or guardian showed a gain of 22.5% in reading scores at or above grade level; children most uninvolved in the programming showed a 2% loss.”
Adult illiteracy is most frequently attributed to a lack of access to books while growing up, difficult living conditions, unaddressed learning disabilities and lack of encouragement to partake in reading opportunities in their own education, according to the National Council for Adult Learning in a 2022 report. The trend, the organization further added, “has resulted in annual costs of upwards of $225 billion in nonproductivity in the workforce, crime, and loss of tax revenue to unemployment tied to low literacy.”
For National Literacy Family Day, and the month of November, Ozark Spring chapter members have issued a challenge to West Plains and surrounding communities to create and participate in activities that encourage families to increase reading activities in children’s lives at home, and to work with teachers to ensure their success by including read-a-thons, visiting local libraries, seeking out supportive resources, holding book drives, conducting workshops and participating in interactive family reading activities at schools, libraries and community centers.
