YATW Blog Post #1 - Literacy In Philadelphia

Hi, my name is Adlynn Gonzalez, I am currently a student at Science Leadership Academy, and this is my You and The World blog. In our English class we are required to choose a topic that we care about and write 3 blogs about it. My topic is Literacy in Philadelphia. This is important to me because I grew up loving to read, thanks to my mother and my grade school (they were big advocates of reading). My earliest memory of reading was when I was in kindergarten, and I read Are You My Mother by Dr. Seuss to my classmates. In the grades 5th-8th, I was part of Reading Olympics; which is a city wide reading competition. So you could basically say that reading has been important to me all my life.

People who read passionately usually tend to have higher GPA’s, are usually smarter, and have more general knowledge than those who don’t. It also improves writing skills and increases vocabulary (http://lifedev.net/2009/06/reading-makes-you-better/). Knowing how to read is also important when you’re applying for a job, or when you have an interview for college.

According to the Philadelphia Eagles Youth Partnership Eagles Book Mobile, which is an organization made by the Philadelphia Eagles to promote reading in schools:

• 25% of Americans cannot read a book to their child.

• Approximately 45% of children in Philadelphia's public schools are not reading at grade level by 4th grade.

• If students cannot read well by the end of 3rd grade, chances for future school success greatly diminish. Illiteracy increases delinquent behavior and school dropout rates.

Overall that means about 79,250,000 Americans are unable to read to their children. It also means that about half of Philadelphia’s public schools’ children aren’t up to par when it comes to reading. These statistics are just simply appalling and not something Philadelphians and Americans should be proud of.

So what is the issue at hand? Is it just general laziness on the children’s behalf? Are parents lazy and just don’t want to read to their kids? Do teachers simply not care enough to enforce how important reading is? Are kids unmotivated to read? Answers are that children are both unmotivated and lazy. They say it’s “boring”, “not fun”, “too hard”, and “ not important”. Parents say “ they don’t have time”. Teachers say they teach but do we really know what’s going on in those childrens’ classes?

If we want the future generations of Philadelphia to not only get their reading scores back up to what they should be, but to love reading again then we have to do something about it. We need to know why children are getting disinterested in reading,when they are getting disinterested, and how to get them interested in it again.  All I want is for the children of Philadelphia to love to read again and to show them how important reading is. Stay tuned for my next blog to see ways that we can help Philadelphia’s children with reading.

Here are some websites:

The Importance Of Reading Aloud

Why Children Don’t Read