Impact of Literacy Education

Improving the Quality of Life

The term “literacy” has expanded to mean so much more than just learning to read, write and do math. We now see it can lift people out of poverty, enrich a person’s life, help maintain employment, and, while helping to follow instructions, it can improve one’s quality of life.

Achieving U.S. Citizenship

In the M&O Literacy Council’s first 13 years, 11 students have become United States citizens. We celebrate with them by taking their photo, writing about their U.S. citizenship in our newsletter, and presenting them with that year’s White House ornament. To see the excitement this brings, the tears in their eyes, and the gratitude in their voices is beyond compare. It makes all the hard work worth it.

Literacy Students Excel in Many Ways

In these past 13 years, we have had students begin their own businesses (car repair shop, dressmaker business and on-line jewelry business, to name a few). We’ve had students have the confidence to take their driver’s license test (and pass!) and apply for jobs they didn’t think they’d get. They also develop the confidence to do things that others may consider simple, as in going to a Parent-Teacher Conference without a translator or voting for the first time.

Literacy Opens the Doors to Freedom

When I first began this council, I wondered if we really were needed, but I see now that literacy truly has opened the door to freedom for so many. I am so glad we can “pay it forward” by helping our neighbors to improve their literacy skills.