Emotional Literacy

"many children lack a sophisticated vocabulary for expressing their emotions, and [...] their inability to clearly label their feelings leaves them unable to describe their state of mind in a way that permits teachers to help them."

"Students should learn to find the language to express the full complexity of human emotion, even emotions that they themselves haven’t yet experienced. The best way to achieve that is to make sure that they [...] read and critique poetry, short stories, and novels. Through literature and the arts they will not merely hear and talk about emotions generally, but they will experience and learn to express the interior lives of other people. As a result, they’ll be not only better students, but better people."

From: http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2013/09/for-emotional-literacy-read-literature/

A writing workshop in every neighborhood

"Cubans enjoy one of the richest and most deeply embedded literary cultures in the world, according to researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Nottingham.

According to the researchers, the richness  of Cuba’s tradition is typified by the Havana Book Fair held each year in the capital and then across the country.

“It shows how literature and culture are deeply embedded into Cuban culture:  within every neighbourhood there’s a writing workshop and a ‘Casa de Cultura’.

... “the Cuban model is something we should be emulating in the West"

FROM: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=8987

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Why Literacy Matters

"Books are an irresistible retreat from the chilly and damp; they carry us to lands of whimsy and wisdom. They provoke thought and passion and often entertain our wildest notions. Books provide more than escape. I argue that they force us to observe some aspect of reality, be it through the lens of fiction. ...

“I am saying, then, that literacy, the mastery of language and the knowledge of books, is not an ornament, but a necessity. It is impractical only by the standards of quick profit and easy power. Longer perspective will show that it alone can preserve in us the possibility of an accurate judgment of ourselves, and the possibilities of correction and renewal. Without it, we are adrift in the present, in the wreckage of yesterday, in the nightmare of tomorrow.” 

More often than not, books are the wonders that save me from the banality of everyday life. It is fortunate that books provide a luxury to everyone. The danger is in the easiness to forget the preciousness of literacy. We cannot neglect our minds and give in to the laziness which favors television over novels."

From: http://elm.washcoll.edu/index.php/2012/09/defending-literature-back-to-the-books/



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Literacy rates by country

Literacy rates by country, top 10:

Georgia, Cuba, Estonia, Latvia, Barbados, Slovenia, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, Armenia... (see complete list).

World Map of Literacy:

How literacy is calculated

Guerilla literacy movement

Just hearing this makes your heart grow by at least two sizes:

The movement was founded by a group of journalists and social activists in 1975 to popularise literature among people in rural areas. “In those days, Marathi books were published only in big cities like Mumbai and Pune. Publishers ignored the rural areas. Granthali was formed in a bid to make books available to people in the rural areas,” says Sudesh Hinglaspurkar, one of the trustees.

Granthali borrows books from publishers of Marathi books and conducts exhibitions in rural areas. “So far, we have conducted around 800 such exhibitions and the response has been overwhelming. Educated people in the rural areas of Maharashtra were never exposed to this kind of literary movement and they welcomed our efforts wholeheartedly.” MORE