Empty your purse into your head ? (Part 2)

Did you know that children who do not have access to books or read regularly are vulnerable to lower grades in school?

Do you want your child to develop strong reading skills, perform better in school and have a healthier self-image?

Do you want to easily take advantage of the opportunities that life may offer you?

Do you really need to empty your purse into your head?

Last week we already encapsulated the importance of literacy with Benjamin Franklin’s saying that “If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest”, he concludes.

The importance of literacy cannot be over-emphasized. Literacy changes lives. It opens doors to better health, higher income,higher self esteem, greater happiness and success.

Reading specialists and educators have long being contributing their best in helping people develop their ability to read and write  as well as being intellectually, culturally, and electronically capable. All these skills eventually come in handy in the workplace, especially in the current global village when proficiency in research and computer usage helps in solving complex problems and handling multiple projects.

Scientific studies indicate that nature and nurture combine to shape the brains of children. However, such  baby brains need an emotionally supportive environment and lots of positive stimulation to develop.

According to neuroscientist Patricia Kuhl’s  “social gating hypothesis”, ‘social experience is a pathway to verbal, intellectual, and emotional development’.  If lifelong learning begins from the cradle, what becomes of the millions of  children who are living in poverty and have no books at home?

How do we bring down the alarming figure of  the about 60million Nigerians who are illiterate? How do we come to terms with the fact that  knowledge acquisition is an investment rather than a cost?.

In my experience as a facilitator of reading classes, I dare say that illiteracy can be conquered by creating a culture that esteems reading and reading skills. Children of parents who commonly read at home, and whose teachers lay emphasis on reading tend to strive to be literate irrespective of their poverty level.

If literacy really counts from day one and a meaningful start in life means that parents and caregivers need to build the foundation early, what becomes of children of illiterate adults. Whither our adult literacy programme ?

Government must play its leadership role. Suffice to say that a poor family would think of their stomach first before their head or would they rather empty their purse into their head?

CHIAMAKA BOBBY-UMEANO