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| Co-creator of Spider-Man, the Hulk, Xmen, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four and Honorary Chair of Library Card Sign-up Month Stan Lee. |
September is National Literacy Month and Library Card Sign-Up Month. And as a writer I'm interested in raising awareness about this issue. After all, I write books, and what's the use of doing that if people can't read them? Here are some stats that I discovered when doing research for my latest novel in which my main character is barely literate.
- A 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) revealed that 90 million Americans read at basic and below basic levels. READ MORE
- The anual U.S. cost for low literacy is mind boggling: 80 billion in lost worker productivity, 225 billion lost to unemployment benefits, lost taxes and crime. Literacy Partners
- L.A. county, population 7,000+ has 33% of its people who are lacking basic literacy Visalia Times READ MORE
- 2 million New York City residents are functionally illiterate (25%) READ MORE .
- 32 million (14%) of U.S. adults can't read and 774 million people worldwide can't read. READ MORE
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And now LABOR DAY!
Labor Day has been with us for 132 years. The U.S. celebrated the first one on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City. Then in 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday.
Over the years, it's had it's poster girl and other spirited patriotic images to communicate the U.S. Can Do spirit.
Here's the famous Rosie The Riveter that was popular WWII.
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| AN ICON OF AMERICAN LABOR, 1942 |
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| NORMAN ROCKWELL'S SATURDAY EVENING POST ROSIE, 1943 |
Have a safe, wonderful, restful LABOR DAY!
11 comments:
Happy Labor Day to you. I'm glad you're also highlighting literacy in our nation.
In recent years, I've avoided library cards for a simple reason: I tend to keep books I take out, and my fees end being the same cost if I just bought the book. I still love libraries though, and I hang out at them every chance I get. Good luck with literacy thing.
I'm all about READING MORE. Do it!
Those are some scary stats!
Happy Labor Day btw.
You're the best, Theresa. Thanks so much.
You are a very bad boy, Samuel. However, I'll bet those libraries will welcome their books back and do some kind of Frequent Screwup Kind of Reader forgiveness. :-)
As a writer, the more readers I have, the happier I am.
Hi! So glad you stopped in to say hello. They are scary stats. They scared me and I'm not easily sent hovering. We be in deep trouble without readers.
Happy Labor Day back at you!
Great post about the library cards and literacy. I will take my kids to get their own library cards this weekend.
It is sad that we are failing on literacy- which is the foundation of surviving your every day life. Sadly I am not surprised by the figures because I see it so much in my daily life.
The interesting thing about literacy or lack thereof, it seems to remain stable, but high.
Powerful images
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