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continuing the discussion
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From: Leda Schubert <ledas_at_myfairpoint.net>
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2014 12:09:58 -0500
This discussion has been both fascinating and difficult, and involves questions that have always been of great concern to me.
To follow up on Charles' post, here's a thought, and I'd love feedback. Instead of targeting publishers, writers of color, and award committees, all of whom are seriously attempting to deal with this enormous problem, wouldn't it be a good idea to target parents/families themselves? Specifically: fathers. And more specifically, fathers suffering the effects of poverty. As*we all know,* poverty and low literacy rates are intimately connected for all people, not just People of Color. Here in Vermont, which is a largely white state, we see the same statistics year after year: those students who have difficulty reading come from the lower economic levels. It doesn't matter what's being published. They're not going to read it.
So how can we extricate issues of poverty from the publishing issues we've been discussing? Impossible.
Poverty levels (Wikipedia, sorry, but double-checked): The US Census declared that in 2010 15.1% of the general population lived in poverty:^[38]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States#cite_note-pov10-38>
9.9% of all non-Hispanic white persons 12.1% of all Asian persons 26.6% of all Hispanic persons (of any race) 27.4% of all black persons. And NativeAmericans are the poorest Americans.
* 97% of of the population at Pine Ridge Reservation live below federal poverty line.
These figures seem to correlate loosely with publication statistics, though I haven't actually matched them up.
Continuing: I remember a study from some years ago about the importance of fathers reading to children, not just mothers. It makes more of a difference to children when it's fathers than when it's mothers (ugh; women marginalized again?). I don't want to post in the whole study, but here's a summary. http://www.coloradodads.com/index.cfm?page=33 And where are the fathers? Nearly one in three African-American males aged 20--29 are under some form of criminal justice supervision whether imprisoned, jailed, on parole or probation. (Wikipedia, sorry again.) This is beyond shocking, but we all know it. How can we live with it?
There are programs in almost every state that I know of centered around reading with prison populations. Some use children's books. Some have programs for incarcerated parents to record books for their children. But if there is a national effort, I don't know about it. In Vermont, there are a couple of efforts. The Children's Literacy Foundation (CLiF) does this: http://clifonline.org/literacy-programs/children-of-prison-inmates/
But is there a national effort? If not, is there something that all of us interested folks can do? Or does this seem like the wrong direction entirely? My thought: If we can help loving but challenged families without economic resources see how their children benefit from reading, everybody rises. Naive? Maybe. Certainly a huge task, and this is but a wee summary.
leda www.ledaschubert.com
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2014 12:09:58 -0500
This discussion has been both fascinating and difficult, and involves questions that have always been of great concern to me.
To follow up on Charles' post, here's a thought, and I'd love feedback. Instead of targeting publishers, writers of color, and award committees, all of whom are seriously attempting to deal with this enormous problem, wouldn't it be a good idea to target parents/families themselves? Specifically: fathers. And more specifically, fathers suffering the effects of poverty. As*we all know,* poverty and low literacy rates are intimately connected for all people, not just People of Color. Here in Vermont, which is a largely white state, we see the same statistics year after year: those students who have difficulty reading come from the lower economic levels. It doesn't matter what's being published. They're not going to read it.
So how can we extricate issues of poverty from the publishing issues we've been discussing? Impossible.
Poverty levels (Wikipedia, sorry, but double-checked): The US Census declared that in 2010 15.1% of the general population lived in poverty:^[38]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States#cite_note-pov10-38>
9.9% of all non-Hispanic white persons 12.1% of all Asian persons 26.6% of all Hispanic persons (of any race) 27.4% of all black persons. And NativeAmericans are the poorest Americans.
* 97% of of the population at Pine Ridge Reservation live below federal poverty line.
These figures seem to correlate loosely with publication statistics, though I haven't actually matched them up.
Continuing: I remember a study from some years ago about the importance of fathers reading to children, not just mothers. It makes more of a difference to children when it's fathers than when it's mothers (ugh; women marginalized again?). I don't want to post in the whole study, but here's a summary. http://www.coloradodads.com/index.cfm?page=33 And where are the fathers? Nearly one in three African-American males aged 20--29 are under some form of criminal justice supervision whether imprisoned, jailed, on parole or probation. (Wikipedia, sorry again.) This is beyond shocking, but we all know it. How can we live with it?
There are programs in almost every state that I know of centered around reading with prison populations. Some use children's books. Some have programs for incarcerated parents to record books for their children. But if there is a national effort, I don't know about it. In Vermont, there are a couple of efforts. The Children's Literacy Foundation (CLiF) does this: http://clifonline.org/literacy-programs/children-of-prison-inmates/
But is there a national effort? If not, is there something that all of us interested folks can do? Or does this seem like the wrong direction entirely? My thought: If we can help loving but challenged families without economic resources see how their children benefit from reading, everybody rises. Naive? Maybe. Certainly a huge task, and this is but a wee summary.
leda www.ledaschubert.com
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Received on Sat 08 Feb 2014 11:09:44 AM CST
