Essay: Sofia DeAngelis Essay:
ESSAY: SOFIA DEANGELIS NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY Every child is born into our world with the right and the need to read. We all can recall a favorite book of our childhood, not necessarily for the plot itself, but for the influence that it had on us. Maybe it was the emotions you felt while reading it, the way it captivated your mind afterward, or how it opened up a whole separate world for you to explore on your own. Whether it was as silly as Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar or as whimsical as JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, reading will always be an essential pillar in one’s adolescent life. The sad reality, though, is that in an era where any book fathomable is seemingly a click away, reading has increasingly become a part of the past. More importantly, the necessary attributes acquired through the process of reading have remained and will continue to remain the same. The Nashville Public Library recognizes both of these pressing problems and works to combat the two. One of Tennessee’s most urgent issues plaguing the state today is the literacy rate in our youth. Tennesseans for Student Success President and CEO, Adam Lister, demands for improvement in legislation since “Tennessee’s literacy rates are at crisis-level lows with only 34.9 percent of students reading on grade level” (‘Tennessee’s Literacy Rates at Crisis-level Lows, Student Org, Says’). Even before the pandemic, only one-third of Tennessee third graders across the state were proficient in their Language Arts class. Combining these two statistics is scary when taking account of the increased difficulty to succeed in overall education when a child is still behind in the third grade milestone (‘Literacy in Tennessee’). This mass falling-behind carries on through the entirety of their schooling careers and beyond. Upon reaching fourth grade in Tennessee, only one-third of students receive a proficient reading score. In 2015, more than half of Tennessee students from the third grade to eighth grade failed to pass the state’s proficiency bar. Previously, in 2013, that number was 2 percentage points lower, meaning that Tennessee is moving in the wrong direction (Aldrich). While lack of interest in the internet era is partly to blame for the degradation of literacy rates, it is not the full story. These frightening data points worsen when focusing on disadvantaged students. According to various studies, disadvantaged students throughout the country on average tend to struggle more in their academic careers. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, as many as 22% of children in the United States are struck by poverty (Hart). Households in financial hardship typically are unable to afford proper education for their children, let alone the basic needs. These kids already suffer with a scarcity of food, poor health, unsafe environments as daily challenges, Based on the reports of Reading is Fundamental, 80% of children living in economically disadvantaged communities lose reading skills over breaks as a result of not having access to certain academic resources like books (Hart). Add to these struggles larger class sizes, increased classroom behavior problems, and limited access to technology while at school and literacy becomes even more of a challenge. Once a student fails to envision success for his/her future, there is apparently no reason to continue academically. In 2012, 29,000 Tennessee students ended their educational path and dropped out of school, a majority
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