Developing a literate environment for children

Developing a literate environment for children

Ahmad Bukhori, Bandung

Early childhood education has gained more attention these
days. Some people now recognize that the future of a nation lies
in literacy education, or teaching children reading and writing-
related skills.

In this global era, good literacy education that provides
children with necessary skills to keep pace with other nations is
really inevitable. The ongoing multifaceted crisis in Indonesia
will worsen if people, especially children, are left uneducated
and illiterate. Once this happens, we will experience an
unimaginably saddening lost generation. To avoid this, we have to
prepare our children by creating for them a supportive literary
environment.

Literacy has various definitions. In its basic sense, literacy
means the ability to read and write. Furthermore, Kirsch and
Jungeblut in their book Literacy: Profile of America's Young
Adult define literacy as the ability to use printed and written
information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and
develop one's knowledge. In its wider sense, literacy may involve
knowledge of information, politics, science and technology.
Although there is no single definition of literacy, there is a
universal agreement that everyone now needs a far higher literacy
level than that was needed here in the past. And this requirement
will continue to grow.

Literacy is the basis of a country's development. Dan Wagner
of the University of Pennsylvania states that literacy, or a lack
of it, closely relates to school dropout rates, poverty and
unemployment. These are three important indices of human resource
development that determine a country's position in the world --
an increasingly competitive, interrelated world. At present,
literate children should not only be able to gain knowledge from
what they read but also function well in the society they live.

A literate generation is an invaluable future investment.
Considering its importance, some developed countries like the
U.S. have established a program called, "No Child Left Behind".
It is meant to guarantee that not a single American child grows
up without getting the necessary literacy education and an
appreciation of reading and information.

This guarantee is likewise really necessary for Indonesia.
Once all our children are sufficiently literate, we will have a
powerful civil society in the future. A society that is not only
well-informed in reacting to provocative issues, but also one
that is intelligent enough to analyze and be critical of bad
government policies. It could also mean an end to threats of
ethnic and religious clashes, and eventually lead to good
governance. Considering how important a literate generation for
our country is, we have to make every possible effort to build
our children's literacy environment.

Of many literacy aspects, family literacy is very urgent. The
most valuable gift parents can give to their children is
literacy. Parents can do many things to boost their children's
literacy at home. Even before a child is born, a pregnant woman,
it is purported, can actually help build early literacy by
reading aloud to her baby before it is born.

Extensive research has shown that reading aloud to children is
the single most important thing a parent can do to prepare a
child for future academic success.

In addition, other family's activities should also enhance
children's reading interests. Besides reading aloud, parents can
involve their children in activities that require reading such as
reading recipes when cooking or reading directions in kite-
making. They can also establish a reading time for their
children, even if it is just ten minutes a day for instance. If
children are school-aged, parents can write notes to their
children and ask for their written responses, and ask them to
borrow books from the school library. In general, parents should
encourage children in all their reading efforts.

Besides family, school policies and activities should promote
literacy development. Schools should implement literacy-based
curriculum by focusing on and incorporating reading and writing.
The teaching of reading at kindergarten or elementary school
should also contribute to students' reading enjoyment and
increase their interest in reading. To achieve this, Indonesian
teachers must learn the modern strategies for teaching emergent
readers. Then they can flood their students with a lot of reading
materials that stimulate them to use their reading skills.

Along the same lines, teachers should incorporate reading and
writing processes into critical thinking. This skill is really
necessary to prepare a caring and empathetic generation. They can
do this, as Miles Zintz of the University of Minnesota says, by
involving students in evaluating, drawing inferences, and
arriving at conclusions based on evidence found in their reading.
The reading materials can involve the use of news in mass media
such as newspapers, magazines, television and radio. In the
process, they really need to develop a questioning attitude to
become more discriminating consumers of news media, advertising
campaigns and entertainment.

The government should consider literacy development as a
priority by the provision of supporting policies. Books should
free for all children. The establishment of actual functioning
public libraries would be good too, particularly in cities. These
libraries should be more accessible, adequately supplied and well
operated by professional librarians. In villages and districts,
local governments should facilitate the use of public offices for
reading space and libraries.

Besides, other community members should also play their role
significantly. Book stores should provide reading rooms as well
as book discussions by inviting authors and other intellectuals.
Book publishers should not only think of economic benefits to
make books more affordable. All these suggestions will enhance
reading interest that will lead to a critical, caring and
empathetic generation.

It would be really heartwarming to see our children grow up
with very high literacy. This will qualify them to successfully
keep pace with other nations. This is unlikely to happen without
our real and continuous support and determination. Our children
will like reading if they are exposed to it more. In this way, we
should pay more attention to early childhood education and
parents need to be better examples. As the old saying goes: Like
father, like son.

The writer is a Fulbright scholar and Kelly student with the
School of Education at Boston University and a faculty member at
the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia Bandung. He can reached at
bukhoribandung@yahoo.com.

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