Poverty and Book Availability
In 2006, a series of appalling studies were published by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The results stated that only 31 percent of American college graduates had “proficient prose literacy,” and that 29 percent of eighth-graders in American public schools read at “below basic” levels.
This acute drop in literacy and comprehension proficiency is an ongoing, global trend. In addition to its effects on one’s ability to compose captivating essays, literacy also influences all aspects of a person's development. This encompasses successful communication, the ability to learn new things, and even building empathy and compassion for others. In essence, literacy ensures a functional society and primes the next generations to be capable adults. Hence, this decrease in worldwide literacy rates bodes very poorly for the future.
In the wake of these publicized statistics, concerned parents and government educational branches initiated multiple efforts to amend these numbers. One of their endeavors was to expand the amount of words and writing young children were exposed to. As a result, programs like public libraries became widespread. For many, this is where the drive stopped. The distressed parties elected to trust in public libraries to help the youth develop properly, and turned to other matters. However, what the majority of them failed to factor in was the lower-income communities, and the availability of books within them.
In helping impoverished children, summer break has been the bane of educational workers and literacy efforts. With the respite from school for months on end, especially for younger children, many of the habits they work all year to develop quickly degrade. Without academically stimulating material, progress a year in the making can be lost within a few short weeks. Studies have shown that reading even a few pages a day can help maintain the academic progress of these children and prepare them for the upcoming school year. Unfortunately, by the virtue of the location they live in, this feat can range from difficult to nearly impossible. In several places in the US alone, up to 830 children would have to share a single book for every child in the community to be able to read.
These book-deficient, usually high-poverty areas, are termed “book deserts.” Children born or raised in them demonstrate lower average test grades, lower rates of graduation, and higher rates of continued, generational poverty. Areas with over 40% of residents living in poverty have it the worst, with “borderline” neighborhoods consisting of 20-30% impoverished individuals coming in second place. Despite being only marginally less impoverished and still having an insufficient amount of reading materials, these borderline locations have been reported to possess up to 16 times the books their high poverty counterparts have.
Living in the suburbs of the Bay Area myself, I decided to investigate this hypothesis in my surrounding districts using the US government book index. Although my findings were highly subjective, they followed the trend to a T. In my school district, a relatively middle-class environment with 7,920 students, there were 2 public library service outlets. In a neighboring district, known locally to be upper class and brimming with private school students, there were 4 library services for just 5,340 students. Lastly, in an apparently poverty-stricken neighborhood, there were 10,770 students solely utilizing one library.
Through the data and my personal anecdotes, it is evident that poverty, often believed to be eradicated through education, is a feedback loop. The poorer you are, and the poorer the neighborhood you live in, the less opportunities you or your children have to be educated. Consequently, the less educated you are, the less likely you are to succeed. In short, the poorer you become, the harder it is to escape your poverty.
The unavailability of books in “lower class” places is undoubtedly a mere symptom of a greater disease, just an effect borne of the increasing wealth inequality in the USA. Nevertheless, it is a dire issue that needs and deserves to be solved. All children, not just impoverished and not just American, should be presented with equal opportunity to lead quality lives. To achieve this, the provision of universal education is essential, and books must be available for the youth to learn from. Without knowledge, there is little hope for the future, and without a future, there is little hope for us.
Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/where-books-are-nonexistent/491282/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01616840903562976
https://phys.org/news/2016-07-desertspoor-neighborhoods-lacking-children-booksacross.html
