Sunny Side Up Oct.1, 2003 �2003, Kathleen Gibson Tackling illiteracy together If you've traveled by air, you know about the laminated flyer tucked into the back of the seat ahead of you. Emergency safety instructions. Tremendously reassuring for nervous passengers, I'm sure. Flight assistants encourage you to know those safety procedures before takeoff. At 50,000 feet the pilot may not have the courtesy to announce, "Passengers, we have a hairline crack in the left wing of this plane. In five minutes those on that side will have a spectacular view as it widens and the wing drops off entirely. We recommend you take out your safety card and study it closely. Have a nice flight." The card explains where to find and how to don your oxygen mask. How to sit during turbulence or emergency landing. How and where to exit the plane (after landing, presumably). How to use your seat for a flotation device?????? Not all travelers speak the same language, so there's no words on the folder. Only what the airlines assume will be universally understood: pictures. Black lines, yellow squares, green arrows and red x's .�. I'm going from memory. I haven't studied one in a while. When I fly, I seldom take those cards out anymore, for two reasons: First, in the crashes I've heard about, those safety measures merely prolonged the inevitable. I'd rather see Jesus a few seconds sooner, thanks, than sit in terror sucking air from a yellow mask and imagining the landing. But the second reason I don't bother with those instructions is this: I can't read them. When it comes to interpreting symbols, I'm virtually illiterate. Cross my heart. I can't read them, except for the most common ones-traffic symbols and No smoking signs. A picture paints a thousand words, they say. But not for everyone. Most comic strips are beyond me too, particularly the wordless ones. "Read this, Hon," says the Preacher, slipping me a strip. I analyze every line, every frame. "I don't get it. Why's that funny?" But he's walking away, rolling his eyes. It's no fun, feeling so stupid. One seventh of the world's population feels that way about reading and writing, only far worse. In Canada, 22% of our adult population is functionally illiterate. They can't decipher more words than are needed simply to exist. Illiteracy is a vast social problem. As a global citizen, that concerns me. It also concerns me as a Christian, because the Bible must be read to be understood and proclaimed. This month, the UN launched Literacy Decade with the goal of increasing global literacy levels to 50% by 2015. Communities everywhere are looking for volunteers to donate time and/or money to help meet that goal. Who better to light the path than concerned people of faith? If one out of every six literate people worldwide paved the way for one other person to read, our literacy levels could reach 100%. If you can read this, why not help? So someone doesn't have to feel so stupid. Or so lost. You can respond to this column at [email protected] |
 |