"Show the world your commitment to literacy..."

On this day In 1967, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called today International Literacy Day, a global celebration of the importance of reading and writing in the lives of children AND adults.

"Adult education is one of the keys to the twenty-first century," said UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor.

An estimated 860 million of the world's adults do not know how to read and write a short, simple statement on his or her everyday life. Two-thirds of that number are women. Illiteracy in undeveloped Africa and Asia remain highest.

However, over 20% of adults in some of the richest countries in the world are unable to read and write beyond the most elementary level.

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life," observed educator Mortimer Adler.

Today, celebrate all that there is to be gained from literacy. Become more aware. Commit to find ways to help "Feed the Mind" of others. Many community libraries and colleges help motivate and mobilize literacy efforts. To find a literacy program in the United States, call the National Institute for Literacy Hotline at 1-800-228-8813.

As writer Thomas Carlyle once observed, "All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is all lying in magic preservation in the pages of books."

More READING Quotations

Literacy gives life beyond life.