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Changemaker Deidra Mayberry talks Adult Literacy!

Before I met Deidra Mayberry, I was really in the dark about the disturbing statistics available on the breadth and depth of functional illiteracy among adults in this country. As Deidra puts it…

In a matter of just one day, people go from children who struggle with reading to adults who struggle with reading.

That makes sense because one day you are legally considered a child and the next, on your eighteenth birthday, you are suddenly plunged into the world with full adult responsibilities whether you’ve mastered basic literacy skills or not.  As a lifelong educator, I’m a little bit embarrassed by how unaware I’ve been about this particular issue.  Deidra cites a disturbing 2020 Forbes article by Michael T. Nietzel that articulates the widespread implications of the problem. 

There’s 130 million adults in the U.S. that cannot read above a third grade level.

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