A New Trashy Summer Read

Jul 02, 2015

Only one home in our quiet central Alberta cul-de-sac has air conditioning. The rest of us sweat it out for the three or four weeks each year when life becomes unbearably hot. We close curtains, bring fans out of storage closets, head down to our basements at midnight with our pillows and pets and our new found summer reads.

One of this summer’s delightful reading surprises is a new blog called The Litter I See Project. The premise is enticing: litter and literacy have a great deal in common. Both are problems, both are ubiquitous, only one is visible. Litter is stuff we throw away. Literacy, or lack thereof, throws futures away.

Here’s how the project works. For the next few hot months, writers from across Canada will receive a different picture of litter. From there, they submit a hot response in any form, inspired by that debris. The project is affiliated with Frontier College, where readers are invited to donate to literacy and help learners develop the skills they need to succeed.

It’s a whole new kind of trashy summer read. For those of us fortunate enough to have reading skills, this blog is definitely worth a visit.    

Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society. — UNESCO

Litter is waste that has been tossed improperly, without permission, at an inappropriate location. Litter is just wrong. — ME

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