This past weekend, Canadians celebrated Family Literacy Day.
At least, those of us who knew about it did.
In reality, literacy is not something most of us think about. It has come naturally. We have learned to read as children, not having struggled to gain the ability to decipher what little groupings of letters actually mean.
But for some, even reading the few words contained in this editorial is a daunting prospect.
And, in Canada, that number of people is far too many.
According to Project READ, a local literacy organization, 48 per cent of Canadians over the age of 16 fall within the two lowest levels of literacy — they can read directions on an aspirin bottle, or call pull one or more pieces of information out of a short piece of text.
Anything more complicated leaves nearly half of the population puzzled and perplexed.
In Waterloo Region, it is even worse, with 57 per cent of residents falling within the two lowest levels of literacy.
That figure is troubling, to say the least.
It suggests a true split in the nature of our community — with the high tech and intellectuals on one side, and those who can barely read a phone book on the other.
That discrepancy should not be allowed to continue, for many reasons.
Without literacy, it is difficult for many things to happen.
For instance, it is next to impossible to have an engaged, informed public, if they cannot read anything more complicated than an aspirin bottle.
How can the electorate, for instance, learn about the candidates in an upcoming election, and what their promises will mean, if they can’t make sense of an election brochure.
And since literacy involves more than just words, but also being able to understand numbers, the problems may be greater than we know.
If you can’t read your tax bill, other than to know how much you have to pay, there is of course far less accountability for elected politicians and municipal officials than there should be.
And, perhaps, the high illiteracy rate in this region suggests, in part, why the election turnout at municipal elections has been so dismally low in the past.
It is clear that more should be done to encourage adult literacy and numeracy in Waterloo Region, with more support going to the work of organizations like Project READ Literacy Network.
While governments often spend tremendous amounts of money to help those in need once they have lost their jobs and have no other means of support, it does little to work on preventing the problem in the first place.
Literacy means power and independence to those who have it.
Surely more can be done to ensure that more residents of Waterloo Region can have these basic skills.
Our community will be the better for it.