“School days, school days, good old golden rule days, reading and ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, taught to the tune of a hickory stick” – so goes an old song.
The idea that the three ‘Rs’ are literacy’s basic tools dates back to St. Augustine’s Confessions (397-401) but the origin of the phrase itself is attributed to Sir William Curtis, a British MP in the late 1700s.
It first appeared in print in “The Lady’s Magazine” in 1818.
Literacy today is far beyond mastering the three ‘Rs.’ Technology has taken much of the angst out of mathematics, but you still need the basics and if you don’t read well you’re hooped.
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The written word, be it on paper or Facebook, is still a framework for communicating. Knowing how to spell helps, even if computers do have spell checks.
Literacy is so important now because there are so many things we need to know, and few of us know as much as we think we do.
According to statistics, 40 per cent of B.C.’s adults don’t have the skills they need to fill out a job application, read a map or understand a lease, 49 per cent can’t understand credit card interest rates, or how to create a budget or calculate a tip.
I couldn’t find any stats on how many adults were stumped by the choices on the recent referendum on election reform.
There are all sorts of reasons for lacking certain literacy skills but there are also ways to solve the issue.
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The Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy offers free programs to help improve our learning goals, whatever they may be.
To quote the CCPL: with higher literacy skills we live richer, fuller lives and are better able to cope with the complications of living in the modern world.
Surely that’s what we all want.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian and book author.
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