Ecological Identity of Children

Another major part of the development and learning of children comes from nature. Nature provides an invaluable experience and lessons that children will remember their whole lives. Please take time to read the following article: 

"Let the beauty we love be what we do".-Rumi

In her newest book, The Goodness of Rain: Developing an Ecological identity in Young Children, Ann Pelo offers this charge:

"We teach children to write and to read and to navigate mathematical systems so that they can access the world of ideas and questions and intellectual exchange. We teach children how to behave with other people so that they can grow joyful and nourishing relationships. We teach children history, so that they know where they come from, and we teach them art, so that they can imagine what might be, and we teach them science so that they understand the intricate workings of the physical world. This teaching honors and strengthens children's innate social, intellectual and cultural, and aesthetic identities, identities that we value as a society. We don't leave their development to happenstance or luck. Just so, we must nurture children's intrinsic ecological identities with intention and action.

"This is our work as parents, caregivers, teachers: to invite children to braid their identities together with the place where they live by calling their attention to the air, the sky, the cracks in the sidewalk where the earth bursts out of its cement cage.

"When we live this way with children, we align ourselves with the instinct to know the place where we live. Inviting children to know their home ground is our way home, as well."

-Source "Exchange Everyday"

Visual-Spatial Skills

"No sight is more provocative of awe than is the night sky"-Llewelyn Powys

"Children who are more traditional auditory-sequential thinkers learn step-by-step, follow a logical progression from beginning to end, are good listeners, are rapid processors, and think in words. Children with strong visual-spatial skills often think in pictures and images. They are keen observers, learn holistically, and need more time to process information."

This is the observation of Dana Miller in her article, "A 'Rich Diet' for Learning: A Multi-Sensory Approach That Nourishes All Children," in the new Exchange Essential, The Power of Nature to Nurture. She continues...

"Visual-spatial skills relate to how individuals perceive, interpret, and act on the visual stimuli in their environment. These skills provide information about the environment around us and guide us as we move through that environment....

"Children have many opportunities to develop and hone their visual-spatial skills through building, purposeful movement, and daily hands-on experiences with nature. Through close observation of children, we have learned that children’s visual-spatial work is a language that provides them with opportunities to:

• communicate their knowledge about the world as they view it.
• develop and demonstrate their skills.
• convey, process, and learn to manage their emotions."

Achievement Gap

The same problem exists globally. Whether it be in India or the United States we must strive to help students cross the achievement gap! Please take the time to read and consider the following article...

"The head thinks, the hands labor, but it's the heart that laughs" -Liz Curtis Higgs

For decades, educators have raised concerns about the achievement gap — the large divergence in learning achievement between low-income and higher-income students in the United States. With secondary schools increasing reliance on the Internet for teaching and communicating with students, there is a new factor contributing to the achievement gap — the digital divide. In Education Week (January 20, 2013), Helen Brunner reported these trends:

"Access to the Internet has become a need-to-have — not just a nice-to-have — when it comes to student success.... About 70 percent of teens said that the Internet had been their primary source for a recent school project, and at least 65 percent had gone online to complete their homework. Teachers routinely assign homework that requires Internet use to complete, and about half of American schools expect to adopt e-textbooks in the next two to three years...."

"Even if students have reliable Internet access at school, many become digitally disconnected when they leave. This is especially true for those who live in rural or low-income communities, and it makes their homework harder to complete.... The lack of access particularly impacts minorities. Only 55 percent of African-American and 57 percent of Hispanic households are able to access the Internet from home, and only 50 percent of residents in rural areas have high-speed Internet, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce."

"Without access to the Internet, students can't take advantage of the numerous innovative tools that have democratized learning...."

United4Literacy

Poll Results- What You Think!

For the past month, we had a poll to survey the effectiveness of our organization. To do this we asked our viewers to answer if united4literacy had motivated them to take action against illiteracy. We now have the results for this poll. We thank all the participants and are proud that all of you reported that united4literacy had in some way motivated you to take action. This means our first poll had a 100% positive result. If united4literacy has motivated you to take action, then you have motivated us to continue in our efforts. We will continue to unite for literacy and be on the lookout for more posts, comments, opinions and polls as we strive to accomplish the dream of global literacy. Thanks to all our viewers from over 13 different countries and we hope you continue to support our  common goals of literacy!
-United4Literacy

Where there is a will there is a way....

This photo is so motivating at many levels......
we have so many children around the world who has potential and willingness to learn and study, let's we all reach out as much as we can and help them to achieve their right to learn and be in school.

Happy Father's Day!

Protect the Rights of Children!

Anti Child Labour day may be over today, but let us never cease our efforts to protect the rights of children. Only literacy can help someone achieve their rights, so lets make it the supreme right!

Education can Change the World!

Heeding the advice of such leaders we can change the world!

Worldwide Anti Child Labour Day!

Today, on anti-child labor day let us all do our part to end child labor and initiate child literacy!

Bring Change-Stop Child Labour!

"Change your thoughts and you change your world"

- Norman Vincent Peale 

Let's work together to change our world! Please help stop child labour!

United4Literacy- Our Website and Blog

Hello friends!

Please take a minute to visit our newly updated website at www.united4literacy.org. We hope this updated website will help in our mission to spread literacy. Please also take a look at our facebook page. Both links are provided to the top right of your screen.

Thanks!
-United4Literacy

Send a Message

When attempting to tackle an issue as great as illiteracy, it is important to obtain the help and support of others. As a student, I was presented with the opportunity of presenting a public speech to my peers and teachers. This speech is centered around the causes, effects and solutions to illiteracy in India. It communicates how important literacy is to the global society. Communication is key and when trying to overcome illiteracy. My speech is below. Will you help send the message?

It was once said by a great leader that “Literacy is the bridge from misery to hope”. But, for millions of children around the world this bridge is left broken, shattered, never to be repaired, for they are uneducated. Illiteracy lives everywhere and is a challenge facing all of humanity regardless of race, religion, or ideology. A country with illiterate children faces many issues. The challenges in India are a crippling combination of cultural, economic, and social issues caused all by illiteracy. Home to the largest child population of 400 million citizens aged below eighteen, the country has one of the most rigorous and competitive schooling systems in the world. However, India also has one of the lowest literacy rates globally. Its structure of education and its societal disparities has shaped the causes, effects and the possible solutions to the illiteracy problem. As an emerging major producer and consumer nation, India must learn to clean-up and overcome the weak and ineffective educational system and seize its future so the next generation can see a literate and soaring India.

To understand illiteracy in India we have to uncover the roots of an illiterate nation. The eighty-sixth amendment of the constitution under article 21a clearly states, “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine”. Nevertheless, this type of law was not implemented nationwide until the Right of Children to free and compulsory education of 2010. The delay in the enforcement of such a crucial right has allowed India to continue to have insufficient and money centered schooling systems. India’s privatized approached to education is what continues to hurt the nation. For the children who cannot attend private schools with their steep fees, there are government schools. However, studies of these government schools indicate that 59% have no drinking facilities, a further 89% have no washrooms and are often short staffed, since qualified teachers work for the highly competitive wages offered by the private schools. Furthermore, it was the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, with a pained tone addressing the issue of child literacy quoted “only 47 out of 100 children enrolled in class I reach class VIII, putting the dropout rate at 52.78 percent”. As the resulting socio-economic effects are triggered we see that India continues to suffer under the burden of illiteracy.

As we explore the effects of illiteracy we see that a country suffers both socially and economically from child illiteracy. It is just common sense that in India the child labour issue is the most infamous social effect of child illiteracy. Child labour is proof by contradiction of a weak educational system. The wide spread poverty causes a vicious chain of both poverty and illiteracy for the next generation. If we explore this cycle many of the social effects become clear. We can start with uneducated and subsequently poor parents who lead to exploitation and child labour since the family cannot afford schooling for the child. This leads to less opportunities and a doubtful future for the child. The cycle continues. Both of the issues of poverty and illiteracy could have been eliminated if the parents of the child were literate and understood the importance of education. We could break this cycle in Indian society if we tackled just one link: illiteracy. The subsequent effects upon the country’s economy are crippling and do not even allow a progressive economy like India to advance to its full potential. According to a new report titled ‘Economic and Social Cost of Illiteracy’ released at the World Literacy Summit at Oxford in association with Pearson, illiteracy costs the global economy 1.19 trillion dollars. India is expected to be the home of 50% of all illiterate people worldwide in the next 50 years. Imagine the colossal burden upon one country’s economy that half of the world’s illiterate people could pose.

Lastly, as a concerned global citizen it becomes vital to offer possible solutions for such a problem. It is crucial to raise the awareness of how important an education is for the people, society and the country as a whole. Among the attempts to cure illiteracy there are undertaking that show that the people of India do care, they yearn to see a shining India. The most successful newspaper in India, The Times of India implemented a “Teach India” goal which calls for support from the general public volunteers to take just 2 hours a week to volunteer and assist them in educating the nation. Furthermore, the government has provided deep insight into the heart of the illiteracy and created the “Midday Meal” program. This program targets rural schools and provides a free meal to the children who study there. Many families with children cannot afford to feed them. The government picking up on this provides meals for children who come to school thus reducing the financial burden to families and educating the child in the process.

Inspired by ideas like these I decided to step up and create a small organization, “United 4 Literacy” to motivate people to take action and appreciate the education that they receive and sometimes do not value fully. Currently we provide the funds in India to educate five children every year who show potential and willingness to study. It is important to realize that change will come only through ideas, an idea by itself may be just an aspiration, but an idea when put into action becomes an inspiration.

Ultimately, literacy is a two sided coin. On one side, if a nation can manage to achieve total literacy than it will reap the benefits of a faultless society and a roaring economy. On the flip side, if literacy is not given total priority by the government and the public of a nation, then the effects can tarnish a nation itself. But, if we put in a sincere effort, and truly unite for literacy, than the dream of a literate nation that the people of India saw since independence can finally be achieved. Only literacy can help someone achieve their rights, so literacy should be made the supreme right. Change will start with building the literacy bridge and end with a shining and excelling India.

Participate in Our Surveys

Hello viewers,

We at United4Literacy give utmost priority to effectively solving illiteracy issues globally. It is very important to communicate with our viewers and receive feedback about organization or illiteracy in general. We would like to request you to participate in our online survey poll monthly. Every month, a new survey poll will be asked. If you could honestly answer these simple questions it would be very helpful. There are 29 days left in the current poll asking about your thoughts of our organization.

Thank you to all viewers,
United4Literacy

Let's all be a Leader!

The Purpose of an Education!