The Power of Literacy

Posted by admin on 09.08.2009 at 2:39 pm

As you undoubtedly know, we are all about literacy here at Better World Books.   But you might ask, why literacy? And what does it mean to promote literacy?  That’s why we thought in honor of International Literacy Day we’d share our views on why literacy is so important to us and to the world.

Those of us who can read and write sometimes take that ability for granted, but think of all the things you couldn’t do without those skills, from navigating your way in a new area to knowing what medication to take to being able to understand and communicate with the world around you.

Being literate is not just about the ability to read a story and enjoy good books, it is about being empowered.  United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said it best:  “Literacy is not just about reading and writing; it is about respect, opportunity and development”.

There is a correlation between literacy and poverty. This is why empowerment through literacy is so important. Literacy presents new opportunities and brings the marginalized onto equal footing enabling them to lift themselves out of poverty. Literacy is foundational to education which in turn is foundational to development.

To celebrate International Literacy Day, we’re discounting all used books in our warehouse 15%.  As always, you’ll be helping one of our amazing non-profit literacy partners with every purchase.   (Note — that means used books from our warehouse, not from the Marketplace.)

Just use this code at checkout:    4LITERACY
One Day Only – Good on Sept. 8, 2009!

6 Comments » | Tagged Impact, 4Literacy, International Literacy Day, literacy, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon

World AIDS Day

Posted by Jack on 12.01.2008 at 1:42 pm

From the offical website: The 1st of December, World AIDS Day, is the day when individuals and organisations from around the world come together to bring attention to the global AIDS epidemic. 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Whilst we have come a long ways since 1988, there is still much more to be done.

Read more…

1 Comment » | Tagged Impact, Our Partners, books for africa, literacy, World AIDS Day

On Language: Emoticons

Posted by Jack on 08.27.2008 at 10:14 am

I was recently flipping through the back issues of the New York Times magazine that I had not yet gotten to and saw one of my favorite columns, On Language, tackling a most interesting topic for a CBO: Emoticons.  You won’t see emoticons here at the Better World Blog, but in a world where the average American child types far more than they write and emoticons and “AIM speak” dominate, it can be a challenge to think of how literacy and education will change with these dominating forms of communication.  How many of you have fallen in and said “brb” “lol” or just included a simple ” ” in an email or used “u” instead of “you” in a moment of brevity inspired weakness?

In any event, the article is sharp and can be found here but the point of most note is the end:

Those concerned about the compression of our sped-up language are directed to “Linguistic Ruin? LOL! Instant Messaging and Teen Language,” by Sali Tagliamonte and Derek Denis, an article in the spring 2008 quarterly “American Speech” (dukeupress.edu). My choice for most influential and seminal language book of the year is “Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World,” by Naomi S. Baron, professor of linguistics at American University in D.C. (Oxford University Press, $30). She’s a scholar who can write in real time with real words.

1 Comment » | Tagged Book Reviews, emoticons, literacy, new york times, on language

Spell Check Isn’t Everything…

Posted by admin on 07.28.2008 at 2:59 pm

Some ironclad logic for your Monday:

(Question: Which part is more embarrassing: the views represented, the fantastic irony, or the circled dots above the “i’s” that suggest this was actually done by his kid?  ¿Donde esta la educación, amigo?  I sort of love the superfluous hyphen though…)

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, idiocy, literacy, xeonphobia

A Perfect Partnership: BWB Joins Literacy Council of St. Joseph Country to Combat Illiteracy

Posted by admin on 05.07.2008 at 2:39 pm

Maura Varian, Acquisitions Support Manager, hatched a brilliant plan earlier this year. One day, she thought, “Hey, we collect books. We sell books. And, most of us even read books. So, why don’t we help people learn to do what we love most?” And, today, that plan is a step closer to fruition.

As of last week, 11 Better World Books employees have graduated from our local literacy council’s tutor training program. The employee-tutors will be utilizing the company’s new volunteerism benefit for this program. In essence, they’ll be compensated for their time as if they were working away in our distribution center. For Better World Books, providing direct service — be it tutoring, painting houses, or playing with children with disabilities — is just as valuable as receiving, scanning, and shipping books. In the end, it’s all about creating a Better World.

And, Maura’s not done there. In an article which was released today by the South Bend Tribune, she is ready to take her dream of local literacy even further, saying I’d “like to see the partnership grow to eventually allow the company’s own employees who have issues with literacy to get the help they need from the Literacy Council while they’re on the job.”

Thanks, Maura, we’re right there with you!

For the full article, click here.

Have your say » | Tagged Dispatches from the Green House, in our communities, literacy, maura varian

Storytubes: Contest for Kids

Posted by admin on 04.03.2008 at 10:02 am

Check it out!

StoryTubes is here! From New York to California, kids in Grades 1-6 are talking up their favorite books. You can too!

Along with your parent or guardian, follow these simple steps:

–Make a 2-minute video about your favorite book;
–Upload the video to YouTube; and
–Come to this StoryTubes website and send in the link to your uploaded YouTube video using the online Contest Entry Form.

>Voting mania will then begin and happen each week in May! At the end of each week, one lucky contestant will win $500 in books. Their sponsoring organization (school, library or designated organization for home-schooled youth) will receive $1,000 in books.

Four Video Categories:

Hair-Raising Tales
From or For the Heart
Of Heroes and Heroines
Facts, Fads and Phenoms

Tell the story about your favorite book today. When entering, please don’t use your last name in the video. Entries will be evaluated on creativity, content and performance.

OK kids and parents, “let’s see the videotape!”

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, children's books, literacy, storytubes

Are You Smarter Than a 17 Year Old?

Posted by admin on 03.04.2008 at 9:36 am

Slate Magazine ran an article the other day in their “Hot Document” series that’s sure to leave you shaking your head over what leaves high-schoolers scratching theirs.

…the new education-advocacy group Common Core posed these and 30 similar questions about history and literature to 1,200 17-year-old high-school students (below on the following four pages), it discovered that American teenagers are “stunningly ignorant.”Common Core puts some of the blame on six years of George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” law, which forced schools to concentrate lessons on standardized-test measures for math and reading at the expense of education in the humanities. The organization debuted on Feb. 26 with a press conference that unveiled the findings in a glossy pamphlet titled Still at Risk, an allusion to the landmark 1983 education survey, A Nation At Risk. That earlier survey famously stated, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” Apparently, we lost.

The test posed a series of questions whose answers even the slowest-witted high-schoolers might reasonably be expected to know. But only one question (Who gave the “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963?, Page 3), yielded the correct response on a near-unanimous basis (97 percent). Only 61 percent knew what the Renaissance was (Page 2), and only half knew why the Federalist papers were written (Page 3). Fewer than half knew when the Civil War was fought (see below). And this test was multiple-choice!

(Full story and full test over here)

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, literacy

Great American Word Challenge Winner!

Posted by admin on 02.25.2008 at 8:26 am

I reported earlier about the Great American Word Challenge, a nationwide online contest that pit cities against one another to measure their greatness, not by the height of their skyscrapers, but by the depth of their vocabularies. Fresno received the highest cumulative average score and took the title and the prize: a Ubisoft donation of My Word Coach video games and Nintendo DS™ systems to a local family literacy center selected by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). The beneficiary organization is the Fresno County Library Literacy Services Center, which provides free reading, writing, spelling, and math tutoring to Fresno County adults that cannot read or write English.

“The city of Fresno is always proud to support family literacy,” said Deputy Mayor Jeff Eben. “We are excited to have won the ‘Great American Word Challenge’ and thank all Fresno’s residents who participated so successfully in this fun and creative Challenge.”

The Great American Word Challenge proved which American cities could walk the walk AND talk the talk:

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, Great American Word Challenge, literacy, press

Times Where Literacy Would Have Helped…

Posted by admin on 02.13.2008 at 8:46 am

Literacy is a precious thing, and sometimes it would have really helped…

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, fail, humor, illiteracy, literacy

What is a “Literate Adult?”

Posted by admin on 02.07.2008 at 10:43 am

What is a literate adult?  In the world of literacy statistics we hear tons of information thrown around about “proficient” abilities, “basic” abilities, etc… but what does it really mean to be proficient or basic as far as these tests?

Over at Educational Cyber Playground they did some research to figure out what exactly was going on.  In order to do this they went to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy at the National Center for Education Statistics. What they found was more interesting…

If you’re willing to use some simplifications, we can break down some pretty fascinating information here.  I’ll let them tell the story:

”
World IQ averages about 90, so the 50th percentile for Americans (IQ 100) is the 75th percentile for the world.

FIRST QUESTION:
Find which energy source will supply more power in 2000 than it did in 1971, using this table.

Source: US Department of Interior United States Energy Through the Year 2000
BTU: Quanity of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.

SCORE:
Now if you said nuclear power, you figured out what 46% of adult Americans can’t (and 71% of adults on this planet cannot either.)

THIRD QUESTION:
Use the article to write a sentence that explains why the investigating committee thinks these practices are dangerous.

Panel: Sloppy work perils nuke plants
By THOMAS O’TOOLE
Washington Post

WASHINGTON–After investigating corruption in two of the nation’s largest construction unions, the Senate Labor Committee charged Wednesday that so many incompetent welders and engineering technicians are helping build nuclear power plants it constitutes a national safety hazard.
“Unqualified workers have been routinely referred for work as skilled craftsmen, working qualification tests have been circumvented and favoritism is rampant in choosing who will work,” according to a 72-page report released by the majority staff of the Senate Labor Committee.
The committee spent two years investigating the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and one year investigating the International Union of Operating Engineers.
The report concluded that “new legislation to certify workers and make test cheating and extortion a federal crime is needed to ensure the safety, proficiency and durability of . . . construction sites.”
The committee said that one of the most serious practices it uncovered is the sale of union cards for as much as $1,600 to welders who never took qualifying tests.
The committee also charged that experienced welders routinely took tests for inexperienced welders, who were then put to work on jobs that included the Three Mile Island and Beaver Valley nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and the Perry, Ohio, plan near Cleveland.
The committee said that one witness testified that “60 percent of the welders he worked with on the [TMI] fuel pool [where spent radioactive uranium was kept under water] were not qualified for the union journeyman books they held and had bought their books right on the job.”
Another witness said that “some of the worst work I’ve ever seen” was done at the TMI fuel pool. The witness said “incompetent welders” made up to 25 or 30 bad welds in the pipe used to carry radioactive fuel, the report said. The witness added that the welders covered mistakes by “washing the bad welds down with a torch to make them all look uniform.”

SCORE:
This is a much tougher exercise. Only 20% of American (6% of world) adults could write the required one sentence. This corresponds to an IQ of 113. “

Imagine for a second the ramifications of this.  We want our kids to be successful and we want our educational system to be excellent by world standards (the best, really) but only 20% of the respondents could even execute simple reading comprehension from a newspaper article(!)  Not just any article either, one that would directly affect how you vote and what you support for the future of our country.  The most important thing in a democracy and civilization is literacy because information is the key.  Meanwhile there’s only 20% of adults with adequate reading comprehension in our own country.

I’m more thankful for the NCFL’s efforts everyday…

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, literacy, NCFL