Can You Read?

Modern Machine Shop, June, 2001 by Mark Albert

It's June, and scores of young people around the country will be graduating this month. Many of them, however, will not have adequate reading skills to move on to the next level of education or to start careers. Sadly, they will be unprepared for the future.

But to some degree, all of us are illiterate, unable to interpret many of the messages from the world around us. Many of us don't know how to read much other than the English language, in both a figurative and a literal sense. We are unfamiliar with many of the symbols invented by humanity and are largely ignorant of the signs apparent in nature. These signs and symbols are keys to understanding the world we live in. From the mundane to the sublime, great realms of meaning are lost to us. Our capacity to live productive and fulfilling lives is thereby diminished. Consider:

Fewer and fewer people are being taught to read engineering drawings and blueprints. How to read a dial indicator and other instruments is a neglected skill in many quarters. Surely there are numerous examples of similar specialty reading skills that are declining in our industry and in many others.

The percentage of Americans who can read a foreign language is low compared to other countries. English is widely read around the world by non-native speakers. That means they can understand our thinking better than we can understand theirs--to their advantage.

It used to be that every grade-schooler was taught to read music. Musical notation is one of the most highly developed and universally used systems of communication ever invented. It is the code that allows musicians to recreate and convey beauty and meaning that words and images cannot express.

How many of us can read the sky? The clouds at day tell us a great deal about atmospheric conditions and prevailing weather patterns. The stars and heavenly bodies at night reveal recognizable groupings that represent the myths and fables of antiquity as well as facts about the structure of the universe. Day or night, these interpretations add to the awe and wonder of creation.

Being able to read the trails in a forest was once a key to survival. Today, the natural world is a closed book to the majority of people, its wisdom and beauty a secret only because of ignorance.

Learning to read in all its forms should never stop. Make sharpening a reading skill or acquiring a new one a personal goal this summer.