Chances are that, at some point growing up, you enjoyed reading “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” or “A Christmas Carol.” You’re lucky. Around 60 percent of all Maryland children will probably never have that pleasure because they’ve never been taught to read proficiently. The gift that most of our children desperately need is literacy. In conscience, it should not be thought of as a gift but a sacred civil right. It’s the magic carpet not just to success in school but to meaningful participation in the world of work and civic life. “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free,” Frederick Douglass wrote, adding “To deny education to any people is one of the greatest crimes against human nature.” Why do we as a state and nation commit the crime of illiteracy?
Hettleman: The gift of reading and a New Year’s resolution to bestow it
January 11, 2023
