Literacy to me

Dolores Hans
MSMU class of 2025

 "Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress
and the means through which every man, woman and child
can realize his or her full potential" - Kofi Annan.

(9/2024) Think back to your childhood. What is the first book you ever read independently? Who was your kindergarten teacher? What was your first word? Think about your children if you’ve been blessed with them. How many times did you sing them the alphabet, or repeatedly over-enunciate "ma-ma" or "da-da"? Think about your parents. Did they write you notes or tell you bedtime stories?

Literacy is critical to the development of children. Sometimes we don’t even recognize the ways in which we are witnessing or implementing literacy skills every single day. I have learned a lot about childhood development, psychology, literacy skills and resources, and educating the human brain, and I would like to share some of the things I’ve learned.

Someone once asked me what my earliest memory of learning literacy was. Yes, that person was my elementary education professor, but it was still a good question. It got me thinking: a vision of my beautiful mother crouched on the floor with her child laid out in front of her giggling and cooing as she sings cute little songs, points to letters and says their sounds, or reads a book like "Moo, Baa, La La La" or "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". She is a nurturer, the epitome of a devoted mother, and an educator. Before I even entered a classroom, I had a teacher. And knowing my mother, I had a teacher before I even entered the world. Did you know literacy begins in the womb? She probably sang to me and told me stories before she got to meet me. All because she knew how important literacy is. My mother is also an early childhood teacher.

Studies show that talking to your unborn child, playing music for them or reading them books increases their literacy skills as emergent readers.

literacy is so much more than reading a novel or writing a paper. Its importance cannot be neglected. It is also fascinating! It can be broken down into thousands of different parts and each one is dependent on the next. How many times have you, as an adult, seen a word you’ve never seen before and sound out the letters or chunk the word into smaller parts in order to figure out what the word is or how to pronounce it, or you were filing at work and can’t remember if the letter G is before H or if Q comes after S, so you sing the alphabet? These are all important foundational skills in literacy development called decoding, phonemic awareness, and alphabetic principle. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound (i.e. the sound the letter A makes.

At this point in my education at The Mount, I have begun my last semester student teaching. Every day I go to an elementary school in the area and work with my mentor to help special education students. In a world where we could see children fall behind because their brains operate differently than their peers, or because they miss out on learning to have their needs met, it is an honor to meet so many men and women who devote their professional lives to knowing, loving, and teaching children who require as much as a person can give. Compassion, fortitude, gentility, wisdom. This is what it takes to be a special education teacher. This is also what it takes to change the world. It’s no secret that I believe children are the greatest thing this world has to offer. They are a gift. They provide us with joy and innocence, and in return we should provide them with the tools they need to grow their tiny, adorable minds so they can reach their full potential. And their success begins with literacy.

Literacy is the foundation that all other skills are based off of. I have gone back and forth for a long time about if I really want to be a teacher, and if I do what my options are. But at the end of the day, I think about my student’s smiles and about how my own education has shaped me, and it keeps me going back to them every morning.

Even at its most basic form, a novel, literacy is still so exciting. I remember being young and watching The Princess Bride over and over again. My brothers hated it (at least that's what they said). But I loved the story. And when the grandpa in the movie describes the book to his grandson, it stuck with me. He said the story had a little bit of everything, "Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love…". Quite the adventure. It is what made me want to read what is now my favorite book. The Count of Monte Cristo. It has a little bit of everything, just like The Princess Bride, only it is a little less fantastical and a little more historical. It takes place in France after Napoleon's exile. A kind young man who has it all is betrayed by a jealous friend, as well as someone who abuses their power to save their own reputation, and suffers in jail for years until he escapes, becomes rich, and seeks his revenge. The story is full of plot twists, reveals, drama, romance.. oh and there’s fencing too. This book is my annual spring to autumn read. I love getting to enjoy the outdoors and just explore a time in history that I was not around for, in a place I’ve never been, living out the plot of a story.

Literacy is good for kids, good for adults, and good for humanity.