It feels impossible to say something about the importance of reading that hasn't already been said, but at the same time it feels like the message hasn't gotten through. If we all take it for granted that literacy is a fundamental necessity for success in our society, why isn't this a huge national priority?

I have the suspicion it's because everyone reading this has something in common. If you're reading this. If you are amazed we're still writing articles about the need for a literate society, about the urgency of the problem of basic literacy in America, then I know one very important thing about you:

You can read.

You didn't struggle to decode the above paragraphs, you took it for granted that you could comprehend the words and spend your mental energy evaluating the content. Your literacy is invisible to you, like respiration and blinking. When you glance at the day's headlines, when you open your email at work, when you do your taxes, when you pass a billboard on the highway, you're easily and indeed unconsciously performing an incredible trick.

When we approach the literacy problem in the United States, it should be with some sense of urgency, tantamount to the prevention of a virulent and devastating disease. The 2022 NEAP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) reveals that two thirds of nine and ten year olds in the United States cannot read proficiently. In underserved communities, the problem is even worse. While there are also reasons for optimism, the data suggest that we should be alert to a possible problem at the very least.

When those of us who have the power to create change cannot feel the problem in our bones, when we can't even fathom the stultifying effects of an inability to read, we do not assign it the necessary priority. Try managing your life while remembering to breathe 10–12 times a minute. Try driving to work while keeping your eyeballs from drying out. Suddenly life is a chore, and the world has become narrow. But again: No one reading this has direct experience of the problem.

Perhaps if we frame the problem as bigger than those individuals who struggle directly, we might respond with the urgency the situation requires. Leaving aside the personal benefits of being literate (job opportunities, cultural enrichment, a whole world of choice), there are certainly broader issues at stake.

"Democracy must be born anew every generation." — John Dewey

As John Dewey reminds us, education is the process of continually renewing our society, of equipping ourselves with wise leaders, informed leaders, and a healthy national conversation. If two thirds of our citizens struggle to read, if their minds are not free to consider the content, if they have limited access to news and commentary, they will be effectively disenfranchised. Inequity will continue unchecked, and the literate voices will drown out all others.

It is time literacy was a human right, not a privilege.