Extinguishing a Sense of Hopelessness in Richmond Youth

According to the Virginia Department of Education, over one million Virginians age 18 and over lack a high school diploma or equivalent. Yet in order to survive in an increasingly competitive global society, knowledge and learning are essential. Food and clothes offer only temporary solutions. First and foremost, the ability to read will extinguish a sense of hopelessness in Richmond youth. Once a meal comes to an end and clothes are outgrown, their purpose dies but the benefits of literacy remain for a lifetime.

Reading improves our comprehension of complex ideas, helps us define our personal opinions, exercises our imaginations, develops our capacity for compassion, and ultimately molds us into more critical and emotionally attuned thinkers. This is why it is crucial that Richmond youth treasure books and revere libraries. They must realize that that assigned reading is assigned for a reason. Richmond youth must learn to appreciate a wide variety of different forms and genres: creative non-fiction, novels, poetry, short stories, newspaper articles, and more. They need not agree with everything they read but they should read as often as they have time and energy to invest, if only to point out why they disagree with what they read and why. Richmond youth needs to spend less time disengaged and more time actively learning.

Yet despite the many advantages of literacy, the Jenkins group, a book publisher, conducted a survey revealing that millions of Americans never read a single book after graduating high school. The C.I.A. World Factbook may report a 99% U.S. literacy rate, but their definition only requires the recognition of a few hundred words. To give you some perspective about how low of a threshold that literacy rate is, consider that 171, 476 currently used words exist in The Second Edition Oxford Dictionary, which certainly does not include all of the slang, jargon, compound, and foreign words English speakers use.

In order to encourage readership and increase literacy, Richmond must expand upon former First Lady Laura Bush's literacy agenda. Richmond and its citizens should ensure that:

*The Richmond 'Zine Festival runs every year so that city youth have the chance to read independent publications, which will likely encourage them to express themselves and print publications of their own.

*All doctors' offices, whether at MCV or Patient First, and places of refuge contain a reading collection.
*Bookmobiles to visit communities not served by a library, just as in Henrico County.
*English/Literature teachers receive higher pay and more benefits. Richmond teachers receive over $10,000 less than teachers in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, and Maryland (DOE 4).

Anything that Richmond can brainstorm beyond these ideas would greatly benefit the city's youth. In the words of President Clinton, "Literacy is not a luxury, it is a right and a responsibility. If our world is to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century we must harness the energy and creativity of all our citizens." I hope that Richmond will imbue the city's youth with this sentiment.

Sources:

Virginia Department of Education. "2007-2008 Teacher Salary Survey Report." http://www.doe.virginia.gov/. http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Finance/Budget/2007-2008SalarySurvey.pdf. 1 March 2009