Literacy

Right now, there are about 1 billion illiterate adults living in the world. A vast majority of them live in undeveloped countries; about two-thirds are women.

I had to do a project in 6th grade about what I thought was the most important invention in history. Naturally my mind jumped to things like the light bulb, computers, the telephone. I asked my mom what she thought, and she surprised me. She said the most important invention was the printing press. The printing press! That's so uncool! Mom stood firm by her answer. She explained the printing press gave people the ability to distribute information, knowledge, books in vast quantities. It completely revolutionized everything! Whatever, I did my project on the internet.

But now I see my mom's point. What if Johannes Gutenberg decided one day in the early 1400s that he wanted to be a cobbler instead of an inventor? What if the printing press never was? Books would be extremely rare, only copied by hand. A painstaking process, so only the rich could afford the luxury of knowledge. The ability to read would be reserved for only the children of such book-owners (and let's face it, based on the statistics above, girls would probably be excluded from that anyway). Okay, so being a girl, being in a not ridiculously wealthy family, in this alternative universe where there is no printing press, I would most likely be illiterate, unable to read a word. Unable to express my thoughts without saying them aloud. Unable to write poetry, stories, even data sheets (though I doubt I would miss the last one too terribly).

Yeah, sometimes I do not like reading one bit. When it's nearing midnight and oh shoot I still have to read Chapter 12 for English tomorrow, how I would love to whip out the illiterate excuse. "Sorry I didn't do the reading Ms. Serensky, the weirdest thing happened last night..." But really, being literate rocks. There are no words to describe it--literacy is singularly the most important skill I possess. Without it, what would I be doing? Watching soaps all day? Plowing a field somewhere? Who knows. What I do know is that when Thanksgiving rolls around in a week or so and it comes to my turn to say what I am most thankful for, the parents will just have to accept that Being Literate tops my list.