We Educate People About Education
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Your Baby's Amazing Brain
The exhibition, Your Baby’s Amazing Brain is a 48-foot, traveling, walk-thru, interactive mobile exhibition designed to showcase the importance of developing minds in babies, infants and toddlers from birth up to age 5. |
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What We Do
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Not Reading?
Literacy rates are one key way by which the quality of education in nations, states, school districts, schools, and students are measured. In a 2024 U.S. Career Institute post, Jordin Frey presents data that makes clear how nations vary, as measured by the percent of people over the age of 15 who can read and write (uscareerinstitute.edu). Nine countries have a 100% literacy rate: Andorra, Finland, Greenland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and North Korea. Education is mandatory for girls and boys and expectations for literacy are high. The United States and Japan are among the thirty-seven countries that rate at 99.0% or higher.
Nations at the other end of the spectrum are places where educational opportunities are limited, poverty demands that children help their families and/or are expected to work, and expectations are low, especially for girls. The countries where literacy rates are well under 40% are Chad, Mali, South Sudan, Botswana, Afghanistan, Niger, Central African Republic, and Somalia. Illiteracy is common. Illiteracy is a concern in many parts of the world. Over 75% of the illiterate adults in the world live in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, West Asia. However, a growing concern in nations with high literacy rates, is a phenomenon known as aliteracy. An aliterate individual is one who has the ability to read but chooses not to read, devoting attention to other pastimes and pursuits. People who are involved with digital media are often content to get information from headlines and snippets of paragraphs without reading full descriptions and explanations. Cell phones and online games provide constant distractions. Getting students to read entire books has, reportedly, become a struggle in high school and college English and History classes. Some students (and adults) simply do not enjoy reading. Busy parents with too much to do exclaim that there is simply no time to sit down with a book, and often leave the responsibility of reading stories to the children to an electronic device. What to do is not clear. An examination of the subject (thewalrus.ca) presents the possibility that we are becoming a post-literate society. Reading is too much trouble. Author Pierre Bayard has even gone so far as to write a bestseller How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read (2007). Critic Mark Bauerlein notes the new attitudes of the 21st century in his book, The Dumbest Generation (2008). Perhaps readers will seek solace in the fact that book stores, book clubs, book publishing are going strong. But are avid readers a dying breed? Are we becoming a nation of aliterates? And if so, do we care? And do we know what to do about it? Our conclusion at this point is that we are seeking answers, and would be glad to hear from readers who are willing to provide their thoughts. Awaiting your replies at [email protected]. |
Funded Project Announcement Video:
Your Baby's Amazing Brain 
The high-tech mobile museum
Your Baby's Amazing Brain 
MOTAL Creates Traveling Exhibitions
that are leased by institutions such as museums, libraries, schools, and universities. If you would like more information A Class Action:
The Grassroots Struggle for School Desegregation in California Traveling Exhibition 
We also have a Hanging Version!
Two Roads, One Journey: Education in China and the U.S Traveling Exhibition 
Here is a direct Link to our
MOTAL YouTube Channel: 
While you are there, please click
on the SUBCRIBE button which is FREE! Like, Follow, and Subscribe!
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