Happy International Literacy Day!

According to the lovely, couldn't-live-without-it Writer's Almanac email from this morning, today is International Literacy Day, a day founded by the UN in 1966 to keep literacy and reading at the forefront of nations' agendas.

According to the Day's website:

Literacy is a cause for celebration since there are now close to four billion literate people in the world. However, literacy for all – children, youth and adults - is still an unaccomplished goal and an ever moving target. A combination of ambitious goals, insufficient and parallel efforts, inadequate resources and strategies, and continued underestimation of the magnitude and complexity of the task accounts for this unmet goal.

UNESCO statistics suggest that a staggering 1 in 5 adults is illiterate, with a disproportionate 2/3 of those are women. 64 million children are currently not enrolled in schools. You can read more about UNESCO's aims to reverse these trends and their thoughts on the importance of literacy at their Literacy/Education website.