Professor: Literacy is key to ease poverty

Original Source | Statesman Jounal
By Ruth Liao, Saturday February 13, 2010

Understanding the fundamentals of poverty can help community members grasp the importance of promoting literacy among those in need, an Oregon State University professor told a crowd of early childhood teachers, child care providers and community members on Friday morning.

"We explain poverty in this country as something as, 'Well, it's your fault,'" said Leslie Richards, a human development and family sciences professor.

Richards has studied families and poverty, particularly in rural areas, in Oregon for decades.

Richards was the opening keynote speaker for the literacy conference hosted by the Marion County Children and Families Department and its early childhood consortium Great Beginnings.

The event was sponsored in part by the Oregon Community Foundation, which has paid for the region's literacy initiative Reading for All.

More than 250 people attended the conference, which continues today at the Red Lion Hotel in northeast Salem. The attendees also received 10 free children's books each, which came from the community book drive organized by the children and families agency in December that collected more than 32,000 books.

In her keynote talk, Richards said the relationship between poverty and literacy is two-fold: Low literacy skills lead to impoverished circumstances, and poverty leads to low levels of literacy.

Poor physical and mental health, chaotic family lives, the stress of living in dangerous
neighborhoods and psychological stress are among some of the compounding struggles that families living in poverty face, Richards said.

And for early educators, the issue is dire: Of the 13.2 percent of Americans who lived below the poverty line in 2008, about 20 percent - or more than one in five - was a child under age 6.

Well-known research has shown how more than 90 percent of a child's brain is developed before the age of 5, underscoring the need for early education and family services.

"If kids are doing that in poverty, that sets a whole context for their lives," Richards said.

Richards said early childhood educators and care providers can help foster resilience in children to combat those challenges of poverty by ensuring a child's positive self-esteem and social skills as they build upon their learning. Families and community programs also should be supported in their efforts around youth and children, she said.

Chemeketa Community College student Danae Toledo said she appreciated Richards'
comprehensive approach in explaining the causes and context of poverty. Toledo is preparing to graduate in the spring and hopes to become a preschool teacher.

"It's so important to be aware of," she said. "We think we are the richest country, so we don't have poverty."

Dayton resident Kitty Brown, who runs the summer reading programs at the Dayton Public Library, said she was thrilled to attend the conference, not only for her work at the library, but in a grandmotherly role to her niece's 9-month-old baby.

"I'm able to give all these tips and tricks," she said.

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