Does knowledge, or just being older and having more years of schooling, get you better jobs?
How often have we heard that knowledge and reading are not as important as they used to be? "Knowledge ... is available on the information highway for the taking. No need to store information in your head, it's already stored outside your head in media that will talk to you, show you pictures and respond to your every need for information. Facts, concepts, principles, we are often told by educators, come and go, and besides, they are culturally biased, so they teach processes, not knowledge." This is the issue explored in "Knowledge, Literacy and Life in San Diego," a research study by Thomas G. Sticht, Carolyn H. and C. Richard Hofstetter of the San Diego Consortium for Workforce Education and Lifelong Learning.
The researchers tested the "no need for reading and facts" hypothesis through an innovative telephone survey with a representative sample of adult San Diegans. The survey included an Author Recognition Test, which consisted of names of bestselling authors interspersed with foils; a Magazine Recognition Test of famous magazines interspersed with some fake titles; a Cultural Literacy Test using names of famous people mixed with some who were not; and a Vocabulary Recognition Test consisting of real words and some pronounceable fakes. People interviewed didn't have to define the words or know about the people and magazines, just recognize them. After correcting for guessing, the interviewees were divided into five Literacy Levels.
There were great differences. About 20 percent scored in the lowest level-- Level 1. Fifty-five percent of those at Level 1 did not know the word "disconcert," 70 percent did not know the words "connote" and "nuance," and over 80 percent did not know the words "irksome" and "ubiquitous." About 19 percent were at the highest literacy level, Level 5, and 90-100 percent of them knew these words.
Over half of those at Level 1 could not recognize The New Yorker, Forbes, Ladies Home Journal, Psychology Today or Harper's as magazines, while 90-100 percent of those at Level 5 could. Over 70 percent of those at Level 1 couldn't recognize authors James Michener, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Wambaugh, Louis L'Amour, Judith Krantz or Irving Wallace, while 80-100 percent of those at Level 5 did. Over 70 percent of those at Level 1 could not recognize Cole Porter, Margaret Mead, Georgia O'Keefe or Paul Cezanne, but 80-100 of those at Level 5 did.
Those at the lower levels read less, watched more television, and were less interested in politics than those at higher levels. While some at Level 5 had low-paying jobs and some at the lowest literacy level had high-paying, executive-type jobs, in general there was a very high correlation between literacy level, type of job, and income.
But is it knowledge literacy, or just being older and having more years of schooling, that help get you better jobs and higher income? The researchers asked, too, and found that literacy knowledge by itself counts big.
If you have a low literacy level, you're much more likely to have a poor, low-paying job - even if you're a college graduate and at prime earning age.
How does one get to be more knowledgeable? On Feb. 21, 1995, the San Diego Union carried a column written by Bill Gates, the multi-billionaire head of Microsoft, in which he said:
It is pretty unlikely that people will become knowledgeable without being excellent readers. Multimedia systems are beginning to use video and sound to deliver information in compelling ways, but text is one of the best ways to convey details. I try to make sure I get an hour or more of reading each weeknight and a few hours each weekend. I read at least one newspaper every day and several magazines each week. I make it a point to read at least one news weekly from cover to cover because it broadens my interests. If I read only what intrigues me, such as the science section and a subset of the business section, then I finish the magazine the same person I was before I started. So I read it all.
According to the authors, "This is a message that needs to be taken back to the schools -- where reading frequently and broadly often suffers from neglect." But it is also important for those who teach adults. "First, when we work with adults to make them more capable, the workplace and economy benefit immediately .... Second, it is likely that the best educational reform we can give the schools is a community of better educated and caring adult parents. Better educated parents provide better prenatal and postnatal care, better preschool learning, better support of their children's education and learning through the school years, and more children who graduate high school and complete college."
We reach children when we reach their parents -- and we elevate them both by emphasizing literacy.