WEST PLAINS, MO: West Plains Mayor, Mike Topliff was joined recently by Ozark Spring, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, (NSDAR) to sign a Proclamation declaring November 1, 2022 as National Family Literacy Day. The anniversary of National Family Literacy Day established by the 103rd Congress in 1994, highlights the importance of reading and learning for the entire family and emphasizes the impact that parents have on their child’s learning.
According to July 2019 data retrieved from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and the United States Department of Education Literacy Facts Sheet, “more than 43 Million adults in the United States cannot read, write or do basic math above a third-grade level” and “14% (1 in 6) of the adult population cannot read.” According to PIAAC, literacy is broadly defined as “understanding, evaluating, and using and engaging with written text in order to participate in society to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.”
Retired public school Earth Science Educator and Ozark Spring, NSDAR Daughter, Mary Ann Mutrux, said the staggering statistics and NSDAR’s goal of Waving Our Banner for Literacy to bring attention to illiteracy’s root causes and promote improvement in our communities and our nation is what inspired her to get actively involved. Ms. Mutrux reported that, “in 2021 the Ozark Spring, NSDAR donated over 625 books and spent over 40 hours assisting with literacy projects and reading programs for adults and children. In observance of this Novembers National Family Literacy Day, the NSDAR challenges schools, libraries, and community centers to join them in holding read-a-thons, book drives, workshops, and family reading activities.
Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006, and co-recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, wrote:
Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development…. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity…. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right…. Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.
