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Free Illiteracy For Children

Free Illiteracy for Children
Reading is one of the most fundamental skills that most of us take for granted. Yet in the U.S., one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world, we are dealing everyday with people who can barely read. How has this happened? We look down on poor countries like Cuba because they do not have our standard of living, but Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. This is why it is so important to teach reading in pre-school; children's learning is affected by their learning to read and translates to success in their later school years. Border issues exacerbate learning to read for pre-school children; demographics, curriculum and teacher qualifications affect how children learn to read. The importance of supporting pre-school literacy programs and increasing their public funding is critical to the future of our community.
The problem of illiteracy is not new, our communities along the U.S. – Mexico border have been dealing with this for many years. We see this problem in U.S. inner cities, and in communities along the Mississippi River delta region; educators in the U.S. are constantly fighting this very issue in their classrooms everyday. We assume that there should be little concern about reading at the pre-school level or even 1st grade. According to Nicholas Lemann, "The bulk of reading instruction, on which nearly all subsequent learning is based, should be over by the end of second grade. Most of it takes place in first grade… stands out as an unglamorous and not very desirable assignment for a teacher" (Lemann, 1997). Parents have usually been focused on how our children are doing in high school and not paying attention to what our cute little children learn in preschool. "Although most preschool-age children cannot read and write in the conventional sense, their attempts at reading and writing show steady development during this stage" (Hiebert, 1988). We can not overlook the importance of...