Barbara Franklin is a respected proposal and grant writing expert in the education field. Recently while working on The Striving Readers Grant, Barbara posted My Mother Read to Me on her blog as a way to communicate her feelings about the literacy crisis in our country.
Franklin reflects that when she was growing up that, “illiteracy was a term that usually cropped up in social studies or geography lessons and it was always associated with underdeveloped countries. 'Senegal is a very poor country in western Africa where most of the people are unable to read, i.e. illiterate.' Up until I entered the field of education in the 80’s I never associated illiteracy with the adult population of the United States but now I do. And the problem seems to be growing.”
She goes on to say that, “A mother’s literacy level is one of the most significant predictors of a child’s future success in school. 70% of mothers receiving public assistance have literacy skills in the lowest two proficiency levels. Children of adults who participate in literacy programs improve their grades and test scores, improve their reading skills, and are less likely to drop out of school.” (Reder, 1996).
This is why Barbara spends her extra time volunteering at a local literacy program. She concludes with this touching quote by that great American the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.:
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.