12
Literacy’s Lifelong Legacy Article by Randi Haseman Literacy is a big deal. It has lifelong effects. People with lower literacy earn half of what their counterparts make, are more likely to report poor health and are less likely to pursue higher education, which affects career opportunities. This is a phenomenon that Maya Smart has likened to “reading for your livelihood.” Smart has multiple roles in Milwaukee — “too many to fit on a business card,” she laughs. Some of which are educator as an affiliated faculty in the College of Education, parent, literacy advocate, wife of Marquette men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart and soon-to-be published author. Her debut book releasing Aug. Graphic by Randi Haseman
2, titled “Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six,” offers steps for caregivers to nurture language and literacy development as soon as a child’s wail enters the world. Smart’s book details the life of literacy like other developmental milestones: a skill needing practice and precision to be learned. “You forget that children even have to learn what a letter is,” Smart says. “How do you know the difference between a ‘L,’ ‘one’ or a line?” For all children, there was a time when parents needed to read aloud messages scrawled on birthday cards or convey menu options at a restaurant. “You don’t think of it as a skill and something to be gained,”
Smart explains. Literacy is a skill not completely achieved for U.S. adults on a county, state or national level. Data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies estimates that Milwaukee County’s literacy rates for ages 16 to 74 are below Wisconsin and national average scale scores. One in every four Milwaukee county adults are at or below the lowest level of literacy. This is the knowledge and skills needed to perform tasks like reading a news story from the Marquette Wire or scouring that brochure for that study abroad program you really want to do. Milwaukee county adults at or below the second level of literacy is on par with the national and state averages at 32%. This means they can read the tiny black and white label on a bag of chips from Sendik’s or decipher the colorful Milwaukee county bus schedules that sit in the hallway of the 16th Street parking structure on campus. Only 43% of Milwaukee county residents are at or below the third level of literacy. This is figuring out a tip after ordering
