Aliteracy vs. Illiteracy

Introduction

I struggled with my level of literacy until I was in my early 20s. I had a long, difficult history with reading, which is why I started this blog. Today, I considered to be at the highest level of literacy. In any case, I am a Canadian citizen and as far as I can gather, the literacy rate in Canada is under par. In fact, the situation is quite drear. I cite the following, to give context:

"Forty-eight per cent of Canadian adults are considered to have inadequate literacy skills. This total includes 31.7 per cent at level 2, 12.6 per cent at level 1, and 3.8 per cent of the adult population scoring below level 1. This implies a sizable share of the adult population—almost a third—are at level 2 and could potentially reach level 3 with limited assistance. Another 16 per cent, who are at level 1 or below, would need significant assistance and training to reach level 3." - Ref. Adults With Inadequate Literacy Skills - The Conference Board of Canada

This is going to be quite a long citation, but the studies I've consulted give "levels" of literacy - like in the above quote - and I think it's important to understand those levels before moving onto today's text. I haven't yet read the underlying studies that gave us the 48% number (statistic). If my calculations are correct, much more than 48% of people living in Canada have what I would consider very poor literacy skills. I said this because in today's world, I don't think you can truly function and succeed to your highest potential unless you have attained at least level 3. Here is the long citation I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph, to give you an idea of what the different levels entail:

"The OECD defines literacy across six levels. People with Level 1 or below literacy skills are considered to have very poor literacy skills, while Level 3 is considered the minimum literacy skills required for coping with everyday life. The levels are defined as follows:

• Below Level 1: Adults can read brief texts on familiar topics and locate a single piece of specific information. Only basic vocabulary knowledge is required and the adult is not required to understand the structure of sentences or paragraphs. 

• Level 1: Adults can read relatively short digital or print texts to locate a single piece of information that is identical to or synonymous with the information given in the question. Knowledge and skill in recognising basic vocabulary, determining the meaning of sentences, and reading short paragraphs of text is expected. 

• Level 2: Adults can make matches between the text, either digital or printed, and information. Adults can paraphrase or make low-level inferences. 

• Level 3: Adults are required to read and navigate dense, lengthy or complex texts. 

• Level 4: Adults can integrate, interpret or synthesise information from complex or lengthy texts. Adults can identify and understand one or more specific, non-central idea(s) in the text in order to interpret or evaluate subtle evidence-claim or persuasive discourse relationships. 

• Level 5: Adults can search for, and integrate, information across multiple, dense texts; construct syntheses of similar and contrasting ideas or points of view; or evaluate evidence based arguments. Adults understand subtle, rhetorical cues and can make high-level inferences or use specialised background knowledge." - Ref. What do adult literacy levels mean? - National Literacy Trust

Aliteracy vs. Illiteracy

With all that being said, my concern is not merely with illiteracy or low levels of literacy. What I see more and more online and offline is people who CAN read but don't, and/or don't WANT to. People can have different reasons for having low skill levels of literacy. You can come from an underdeveloped country, there are many reasons. The same goes for aliteracy. Maybe you don't have time, you have three jobs and you're raising 4 kids. But that's not really what aliteracy means: It means not being INTERESTED in reading.

That, to me, seems to be leading us down a terrible path. What I mean by this is that I think there's a mixture of both in our society, of low literacy rates and high aliteracy rates (I have found no measures of aliteracy rates in percentages or other forms). I think of the expression, "Use it or lose it." I think that is true for many things in life and potentially for a certain level of literacy skills.

What happens when we have a developed country with already a great number of people who struggle with literacy and on top of that you add an adult population which just isn't INTERESTED in reading? I will be honest, I had no intention of reading for half of my life. I was a practicing interdisciplinary artist and wanted my art to be "informed", so I forced myself to learn to read. Later on, when I shared a flat with a doctoral student, I had far great access to books and so pursued my studies. That's when I began reading extensively, everything from art history to philosophy and beyond.

Where I am now

I started this blog a few years ago and mentioned that I had taken many MOOCs or massive open online courses. This isn't to brag or be pompous, but I took over 100 MOOCs in the last 10+ years. I learned to program in Python and have been doing so for over a decade. In fact, I spend countless hours reading other people's code inside GitHub repositories. This is a topic for another day, but as far as coding/programming goes, I think it's as important to (learn to) READ other people's code than it is to (learn to) WRITE it.

I also took many courses in advanced mathematics, theory of computation, computational complexity, logic, the functional programming paradigm, so many different things, differential equations, statistics and probability, calculus, linear algebra, the list goes on. Am I a master mathematician? Not at all. I'm still just a passionate amateur, but I wouldn't mind going back to school someday to get a degree in mathematics, since I love it so much.

Why am I writing this? I'm writing this because I'm worried. I finish with another quote and then a final statement:

"As a result of the printing press, more books became available and more people became literate. With literacy came exposure to new ideas and independent thinking. And with independent thinking came many revolutions of a religious, political, social, and scientific nature." - p.9. Understanding Media Semiotics by Marcel Danesi

Conclusion

I still struggle with a rather severe, kind of debilitating learning disability, yet I get up every morning and read 1000-page works of philosophy. I study for hours on end. I like to think there's nothing I cannot read. I just do it in tiny snippets, and take breaks between chapters. I learned to adapt to my neurodevelopmental situation and pace myself. Otherwise, I jump from book to book and the information just doesn't sink in deeply like I like it to, and the flow of consciousness is disturbed. It destabilizes me. There's no excuse for people being UNINTERESTED IN READING, especially at adult age and who grew up with free schooling in a developed nation. I hope my story helps children and older people not only learn to find a love for reading, but also realize that they aren't the only ones with learning disabilities. I was away from this blog for 3 years. I hope to remedy that. Thanks, all.

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