by Elizabeth Wordsmith

Created on: September 04, 2008

Some say that he who has the gold rules. I say that he who has the education knows where to find the gold.

Poverty is not a lack of money. Poverty is not knowing where to find it and not believing you have a right to any of it. Poverty is not just an empty bank account. The worst kind of poverty is the poverty of spirit and mind.

If your spiritual and intellectual bank account are filled, you have assets that can't be taken away by flood, fire, storms, theft, or other turns of bad luck.

Literacy is the first investment, one that can increase in value exponentially if put to work.

Teachers cannot solve the problem of illiteracy alone. Everyone must become engaged in this battle against ignorance and limited opportunity.

*Read to your children every day.
*Volunteer to help out in or out of the classroom.
*Promote reading in your home by turning off the TV for a few hours every day and leading by example.
*Use your library. Check out books. Use the computers. Take your children to story telling hour. Sit in on some of the lectures offered by your library.
*Teach an adult how to read.
*Help your children develop good study habits.
*Provide a good study area with work space, good lighting, quiet.
*Stay on top of your chidren and make sure they go to school and stay in school.
*Share your skills and knowledge with others by volunteering to teach some continuing education classes.
*Go to school board meetings and find out what's going on.
*Discuss what you read with your children. Make it relevant. Make it stimulating. Make it fun.
*Share your books and reading materials with others.
*Be an encourager. Encourage your children to write: stories, memories, hopes, everything.
*Encourage your children to ask questions and seek answers.
*Encourage your chidren to get excited and happy about learning.

My parents grew up during the Great Depression. They both grew up in little country towns and went to country schools. Resources were extremely limited. Even paper was scarce. My mom's family didn't even have indoor plumbing. He dad was a simple farmer. My grandmother sometimes had a Black women come in to help her with the ironing or some other tasks. I remember that this woman couldn't read. She would bring letters to my grandmother so my grandmother could read them to her. Illiteracy was keeping that woman down in life, and I saw that at an early age. My mother's parents encouraged reading at an early age. Mom graduated from high school with honors and went to college until

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