Idris Elba on adult illiteracy: ‘It’s a worldwide problem, not just a U.S. issue’

When I was growing up – and I’m dating myself, I know – adult illiteracy was a bigger issue, an issue that was discussed a lot on the news, on 60 Minutes, and in films. It’s not that the issue disappeared, it’s that… I think people sort of forgot that it was and is an issue that people are still grappling with? In the “first world,” we don’t talk about the people who can’t read or write, because we don’t want to talk about how the education system has left so many people behind. I’m speaking of myself too – I barely think about adult illiteracy as an issue facing society today. But Idris Elba thinks about it a lot. Idris works with Project Literacy, and he gave an interview to Fox News (seriously) about the crisis. He touched on some other subjects too. Some highlights:

Hollywood’s problems with diversity: “Yes, yes, not just in Hollywood, but in life. You know, Hollywood is more and more affected by everyday people… and that’s a multicultural society for the most part. Especially in England where I live. There’s a massive move towards that. The progress is slow, but it’s permanent. And that’s really important. It’s the same thing both in the U.S. and the U.K. The progress is a slow move towards the right direction. And it’s a slow, permanent move.”

His passion for raising awareness of “the adult illiteracy crisis.” Through Project Literacy, he befriended Wanda Steward, a former illiterate mother from Philadelphia who struggled to read her children bedtime stories. She then made up her own tales to match the illustrations she saw and created a character called ‘Pong-Pong the Brave.’ The organization partnered with Steward to bring her stories to life in the form of a children’s book.

Idris on illiteracy: “It doesn’t surprise me that it’s a worldwide problem, not just a U.S. issue. What you have to understand about illiteracy is that it’s very hard to admit it. And it’s easy to go around, pretending you can read or write… It doesn’t surprise me it’s such a huge problem because it’s almost undetectable.”

Teaching his kids to read: “Just having children [inspired me]. Just being able to read books to my children. And the moment they recognized words, the moment they recognized the alphabet. That’s truly one of the purest moments for me. There’s an alarming amount of young people that cannot read or write. And there’s an alarming amount of young people who cannot read or write in jail. I’m meeting these gentlemen and some of them become a common denominator — they cannot read or write. And as soon as they can read and write, that opens up a whole level of awareness for them, including their self awareness, which sometimes makes them not want to reoffend. And that’s really important here. This is something I feel quite passionate about. It speaks to me. I consider myself to be a self-taught person. Especially when it comes to my profession and pursuing the things I want to accomplish. I’ve always taught myself how do it. And illiteracy is a crisis amongst adults. I just want to raise some awareness around it.”

[From Fox News]

He’s right, isn’t he? It’s not being discussed so much these days, but there are probably millions of Americans who can’t read and write properly. They fell through the cracks of public education, got caught up in the school-to-prison pipeline, or had some kind of learning disability which made it difficult to learn, and few people could or would help them. It’s startling to think about that in this day in age, in 2017, that there are still so many out there. Now I feel bad about complaining that I don’t “want” to read books in the evening anymore – I always think, “I read and write all day for work, I don’t want to do that in my spare time!” I’m an a–hole.