Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-Review October 13, 1984
Our leading Black psychologists
and educators have told us that
one of the major reasons why the
rate of functional illiteracy is three
times as high among Black
Americans as it is among others is
that the cold, well-calculated and
long term destruction of their per
sonhood during enslavement here
in the USA has never been
redressed.
People must know they are im
portant and people must be treated
as the most important entity in our
society if that society is to grow
and be its best, as God would will
it so.
Thus, in our schools, in our city
planning agencies and elsewhere,
we must focus initially and
ultimately on the importance of
people to themselves and others.
Then-and only then-is the con
text right for our national local
goals to be met.
There is a magnificently instuc
tive story-of cricial significance to
all who are planners for or servants
of the city—told by the ancient
Greek historian Herodotus con
cerning the Athenian people
during the Persian Wars.
King Xerxes the Great (519-465
8.C.) and his armies had besieged
the Athenian people, enclosing
them on three sides.
The Athenian people
escaped by using their boats and
headed by night for a new com
munity which they had been
developing in southern Italy.
Then they sent a message to
King Xerxes saving in effect that
could have the site of their city.
He could have their magnificent
buildings and all of their incom
parale artifacts. But he could never
Illiteracy a preventable hazard
The idea that reading is a
problem to many and couldprevent
them from communicating effec
tively remains a viable entity. In
other words, cultural, social and
political advancement is virtually
impossible without the ability to
read.
Generally speaking, reading is
the root of literacy. If one cannot
read or write by some method,
communication becomes prac
tically impossible.
This information reaches us
through the media. A high percen
tage of school-age children are said
to be functional illiterates who lack
the appropriate writing and
reading skills to cope with the
routine demands of job perfor
mance in society.
Although efforts are being made
to eradicate poor reading, writing
and computational skills, little im
provement has been demonstrated.
Johnny still can’t read well
enough. Johnny can’t read as
school-age child. He then grows
up to be the working man who
can’t read. Poor reading and
language ability follow Johnny
throughout his working life.
It has become fashionable for
some educators to suggest that
school textbooks, college tex
tbooks and other reading material
to be made simpler. Is this really
the answer? The lowering of
reading standards and expectations
has also been recommended by
some respondents to the reading
problem.
In contrast to this approach, a
strengthening of reading skills
would enable one to perform bet
ter on tests. Better performance on
Removing ignorance
from page 4
ask what is happening. If they do
ask what is happening, the answer
given to their question is “I don’t
know". Never do they seek tne
knowledge they need to know, but
rather they remain ignorant and do
not seek the necessary knowledge
to know what is happening and
remove their ignorance.
To remove the apathy and indif
ference of all citizens, adults as
well as students, I recommend that
they become informed concerning
the political, educational, and im
portant issues in our society and
they act upon these issues. We
must supplant our indifference and
apathy with vigorous protests,
political actions; fight back and
defeat the passive attitudes most of
us possess. We can no longer sit
take or destroy Athens; for we the
people are Athens. We are its
glory, its life.
The story makes it abundantly
clear that, in the minds of at least
these ancient venerable urbanites,
the city was not a geographical
area or an intricate set of
economic, politial, social and
religious or other systems, but
rather their city was the Athenian
people themselves.
In so much of our urban plan
ning today, we tend to seek to
satisfy the needs of systems rather
thant the needs of people. In urban
education, for example, we are
forever talking about he need for
more money to improve the
system.
How much it takes specifically
to help Johnny to read, to help
Mary to count and to help Bonita
to translate in her mind what the
teacher is saying in English into
what it means to her in Spanish is
never even placed on the drawing
board or programmed into the
computers.
Systems ideally are designed to
serve people, and more
particularly to serve persons, in
dividually, one by one. We may
have all kinds of fancy calculators
to enable us to figure out com
plicatged numbers quicker almost
than one might say “Jack Rabbit.”
But is the ability to see, to serve,
and to care for persons one by one,
that provides our real measure of
success for those of us. in the field
of education.
It is not how many, but whom?
Who was it that learned the lesson?
Who is it who needs a further
helping hand?
tests would provide increased op
portunity for employment.
There are, also, those who feel
that reading is not as important
today as it was in the past. This
belief is a myth! Many prospective
workers cannot fill out an ap
plication form because they can’t
read.
Has our educational system
begun to accept an anti-reading
culture? Let us hope that this is not
the case. Instead, John Q.Public
should be about the business of
learning and teaching the skills
necessary for upward mobility
within our society.
The problem of reading has
become a hazard with many and
cannot, at all times, be prevented.
We, the society, can offer some
possible approaches to the
problem.
Although improving reading
ability continues to be a tough
task, some reading skill develop
ment techniques have proven to be
effective for some. Foremost in
this effort to solve the reading
problem is the acceptance of the
fact that readers perpetuate
readers.
Parents should be the very first
reading models. They should be
followed by sibling, peers, schools
and the community. Good reading
ability is a mission for all of us.
The home, school and community
contribute to good reading skill
development.
Reading as a skill consists of
three major areas—vocabulary,
comprehension and rate. Im
provement in these areas may be
accomplished by a variety of
methods and materials: Read to a
back and say let Jose Rose do it.
Help is needed from all sources
and you must free yourself of the
diseases of indifference and apathy
that are crippling our nation’s
health.
Arming ourselves with infor
mation and knowledge and sharing
them with others, encouraging
them to write or call our elected of
ficials regarding particular issues
must be done by all citizens, not
just one citizen. We must learn the
facts and not issues and pass our
opinions along with recom
medaiions to the appropriate of
ficials for resolution.
Things in our society will not
change until the elected officials
and the people in charge of gover
nment know for certain that their
Page 2
-Assault on illiteracy-
Who is it that reaches out for us
to care...just a little bit more than
we have been caring...if we have
been caring at all?
In the case of Black Americans,
where actually billions of dollars
have been spent on the “how-to
mechanics” of reading and job
related skills, we have seen that
this investment has not paid off in
the millions of cases where Black
Americans were not pre-instilled
with a sense of sense of worth or
respecting personhood.
Our schools simply have con
signed Black youngsters to
failure...and the highly-paid in
dustrial trainers, in far too many in
stances, have concluded that many
Black Americans simply can’t be
trained
Our educators, trainers, plan
ners and other enablers must see
our cities and our nation as a
whole as persons.
What many seem to fail to take
into account is that many Black
Americans have not been enabled
to fit into the same mold as that of
other pride-filled people...and, as
a consequence of the ego damage
done long ago-with the wounds of
which still running deep-all of our
local and national enablers must
priortize the need to rebuild that
deliberately destroyed sense of
worth and pride so sorely needed
by every motivated and productive
American.
While many of our educational
and other policymakers seem not
to want to deal with this lack of
perception of self as seen in ex
tremis among Black Americans,
the National Assault On Illiteracy
Program (AOIP) may well be
saving grace. This framework of
more than 80 major Black-led
child. Then listen to the child read
to you. Research indicates that
children who are read to at home
become better readers.
♦Sound-symbol relationships are
basic fundamentals of the reading
process. The identification of
vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and consonants
is necessary for the decoding of
words. Learning to read is a con
tinuous process.
♦Structural analysis or how
words are combined (syllables) or
put together is a vital skill for
reading purposes. Understanding
the meaning of prefixes, roots and
suffixes enables one to com
municate better through verbal
and written expressions.
♦Using the skill of reading at a
faster rate, speed or pace sym
bolizes continuing growth in the
ability to communicate.
•Materials and books which
may be helpful for improving
reading skills include the dic
tionary, Roget’s Thesaurus,
English usage books and work
books that cover the skills of
vocabulary and comprehension,
and reading rate.
One can prevent reading from
becoming a hazard if the effort is
made to improve in the skill of
reading. It is not enough to have
reading materials available. They
must be read.
Let us hope that we are about
the business of reading im
provement. Alleviating the reading
problem and preventing it from
becoming a hazard is, also, the
business that we, the society,
should be about.
constituents want them changed.
We cannot change things in our
society until we remove our
ignorance, Become knowledgeable
of issues, educate ourselves and
children daily, write, call and
demand that situations change and
change drastically because you, the
voter, the taxpayer, the American
citizen - tell our leaders that you
want it changed.
When stuaents and our children
see that their mothers and fathers
become politically active,
educationally active, religiously ac
tive, morally active, and
courageous, then they will imitate
their parents and start learning to
read, write and master arithmetic.
When monkey see, then monkey
will do.
national organizations has as its
priority focus the egostrengthening
of our Black and other darker
skinned minorities as a prelude to
learning. ’
When people, when persons, are
seen by themselves and others as
being of paramount importance in
each of our urban concerns, then
management and manipulation of
the mechanics of learning and
other systems for keeping things in
check all go out the window.
And in their place we concen- .-
trate on new approaches to
hearing, feeling, caring, serving,
enabling and helping human lives
to become what they themselves
How to put
the squeeze on
electricjuice.
When the temperature \
is going up this summer,
you can keep your electric
bills down, if you cut down -A
on the amount you use. '
Here are some easy ways \
to do that: AI V ~
1. Keep your pots and pans
covered while you cook. This keeps
more flavor in your food and reduces
the amount of humidity going into the
2. Try to do most of your cooking
during the cooler evening hours. _
3. Check your doors and windows to 11 1
make sure they fit tightly so that your cool
air doesn’t escape.
4. Learn how to read your electric meter.
It’s easy to do. And you can really control
the amount of electricity you use.
These are easy ways to put the
squeeze on electric juice this summer
so your electric bill will put less of a ///Jp
squeeze ort your budget. \ ' '
Georgia Power itk \ /
We Keep You z/
Plugged Into Savings. \W® IP
I I
I iIIhJPiBIM I
I I
I ‘Tm terribly sorry, but if you’d I
I called for reservations....” I
S Someone figured driving 50 miles back and forth costs 20 ®
H dollars. But with Southern Bell 50 miles is only a short long dis- M
tance call away. Which means in Georgia, the most a 5-minute
K call of 50 miles or so can cost is $1.68, dialed direct without the S
B operator. Anytime day or night. gsl
We figure it’s a lot smarter to get on the phone for those ■ 4
K one-of-a-kind things, reservations, shopping, or whatever, H
1 before getting on the highway.
■ Make a short long distance call today I
I (5) Southern Bell
A BSLSOUTH Company
M Dial Station (1 + ) charges apply These charges do not apply to person-to-person coin hotel B
M guest, calling card, or collect calls, calls charged to another number, or to time arid charoe ™*
check your operator Rates sub|ect to change
and creation itself, as they might
undersand it, was willed for them
to be.
Toward this end, the leading
Black educators and other
professionals AIOP have
developed a weekly
egostrengthening and reading
motivational supplement for
community-building newspapers.
It is called the Advancer. And,
while it is designed primarily for
Titlel-type classrooms, the Ad
vancer is an excellent learning tool
for x both parents and young
Additionally, the leaders
of this .personhood approach have
developed a weekly column for
newspapers, entitled “The Who
Am I? Guide to Learning.” If for
any reason, this ego
strengthening information for the
redemption of our people is not in
this and all future issues of your
newspaper, please discuss it with
your editor.
While it is tragic that many in
our society have been program
med and coerced into feeling
something sinister, debilitating ana
demeaning about who they are,
AOIP is on the move to redress
this ancient wrong.
Our nations and our cities must
be seen as God-given units of all
self-respecting people.