Different Degrees of Literacy

All Canadians face a big challenge in improving our levels of literacy. There is no magic dividing line between people who have high or low literacy skills. Almost all Canadians who speak English or French have some reading and writing skills and we all have some troubles with literacy. It is a matter of degree.

A person who works in ajob that doesn't demand high literacy skills may be able to get along quite well with a limited ability to read and write. But if the person's job changes, or if the job disappears and the person has to try to find a new one, low literacy can become a problem. The books used in job training courses may be too difficult for that individual to handle. And filling out job application forms may be intimidating. The questions may be badly worded and hard to understand and the forms may look overly complicated.

In past decades there were lots of good-paying jobs that didn't demand a lot of reading and writing. Things have changed. Most jobs today require people to read. People working in factories have to read many different things, for an average of more than an hour and a half each day.

Workers at risk

Low literacy can be dangerous at work. Workers need to be able to read well for just about any job. If they are working with chemicals or heavy equipment, people have to be able to read instructions and warnings on labels and in manuals. And pictures and drawings don’t always solve the problem for people who can't read. In one case, it wasn't clear to workers that the pictures of someone doing the task they had to do were there to show them how not to do their job. They thought the pictures were showing the way the job should be done. They did it that way and they got hurt.

Lifelong learning

Most people feel comfortable reading the materials they come across daily. But how many of us cringe at the idea of using a new computer and learning a computer program? We would rather just use our VCRs to watch movies than learn how to program them to record television shows. Even setting digital clocks is a problem. Most of us have some trouble with those instructions.

All of these tasks require different kinds and levels of literacy. Faced with a new challenge in reading, writing, or arithmetic, all of us can feel a fear of learning. We may want to avoid the situation. There are times when anyone can face a literacy crisis of some kind. As the world changes, so do the literacy demands we face. The new challenges require a lifetime of learning.

Low literacy can become a problem for people when they cannot handle the everyday reading and writing tasks they need to do to live the way they want. literacy skills that were good enough for a lifetime of work may not make the grade for things people want to do in retirement. The death of a spouse may force a person to face literacy tasks that the spouse used to handle. Changing jobs, or finding oneself without a job, can lead to a literacy crisis, where learning to read and write well becomes important for an individual and for that person's family. And literacy can slowly become a problem as a person feels trapped in a low-paying, boring job.

A Social Bias

There are closely-knit communities in Canada where people can be open about the fact that they cannot read and write. Among the Inuit, for example, literacy is a skill people share. Inuit who can read and write in English and Inuktitut offer help with English to their friends who have had less exposure to their second language. They then receive other kinds of help in return.

In other Canadian communities, however, where everyone is expected to be able to read and write anything they come across, people whose literacy skills are poor can be made to feel embarrassed and ashamed. An elderly person who lives alone in a large city may feel isolated, afraid, and cut off from life, without someone to help out with everyday reading and writing tasks.