THE IMMEDIACY OF ELDERS: WHY OUR YOUTH NEED US NOW

(RootFolkz Poetz Press — Series #1 of 3)

In a time when too many of our children are being shaped by algorithms, disengaged schools, and streets that no longer remember their names, the presence of Elders has never been more urgent. Across this country and in our own community, the gap between what our youth can imagine and what they can read, write, or comprehend is widening — not merely as an academic failure but as a crisis of sacred relationship.

The Numbers Tell the Story

More than half of U.S. adults — 54 percent — read at or below a sixth-grade level. One in five adults reads at the lowest proficiency band measured by the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC).

In Indiana, 18.7 percent of adults have low literacy, and in Allen County, home to Fort Wayne, roughly 55,000 adults lack either a high school diploma or basic English proficiency — yet only 4 percent are currently being served.

Among youth in Fort Wayne Community Schools, nearly nine out of ten third-graders read at grade level. But by middle school, only 28 percent remain proficient in language arts. The slope of that decline mirrors the rise in self-esteem frustration, dropout risk, and community violence.

When reading falters, comprehension collapses. When comprehension collapses, the ability to make meaning — to connect text, thought, and life — disappears. And when the basic path to meaning is lost, self-identity is sacrificed to the trauma-induced feeling of not belonging.

Complexity Without Comprehension

Educators often celebrate “rigor” and the use of complex texts. But complexity alone does not yield comprehension. A child can pronounce the words and miss the world.

True literacy is not just decoding letters; it is decoding life — seeing pattern, consequence, interconnection, and possibility. Elders, in our lived complexity, teach comprehension by example. We are the walking context. Our stories make the abstract real.

The Silent Emergency Behind Bars

Though Indiana has not published exact statewide figures, national data show that up to 85 percent of youth in juvenile detention struggle with functional literacy. Many read far below grade level, trapped in the silence of words they cannot wield.

When youth cannot articulate pain, injustice, or fear, they often act them out. Violence becomes a language born of illiteracy — and absence of guidance.

In Lake County, Indiana, research on adult inmates reveals low reading and spelling scores across the board. In this country, the less one reads, the more one is read to — by the court, by the system, by circumstance.

A child adrift in this nation’s systems — educational, religious, or judicial — becomes a system-fulfilling deficit to their own developmental interests.

Why Elders Matter

Elders are the bridge to community and right-relationship. We hold memory and method — the cultural blueprint for how to make meaning out of experience.

When we read aloud with youth — sit in circle, question, listen, and pass along stories — we restore the broken chain of comprehension. Elder presence transforms reading from a school task into a communal rite of passage.

We bring complexity into context. We remind youth that words are living things; that words contain power they can learn to negotiate, shape, direct, and liberate. We help them access the power already within.

What Works: Models From Across the Country

• Chicago — The Black Star Project
  Elders, parents, and mentors have supported Black youth for nearly three decades, improving reading, attendance, and life outcomes while reducing violence.
• St. Louis — Black Men Read
  A literacy-and-healing initiative where community reading reduces trauma, strengthens identity, and builds protective factors.
• Flint — Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES)
  Blending culture, writing, civic engagement, and service learning, YES has produced measurable reductions in youth violence.

Each of these efforts rests on a simple truth:
When young people are surrounded by literate, loving Elders who see them — when we read together, question together, create together, and think together — the violence of confusion gives way to the peace of comprehension.

The Call Before Us

RootFolkz has always known this: literacy is liberation. Reading is rhythm. Comprehension is connection. We are not just teaching youth to read books; we are teaching them to read themselves and the world.

The immediacy of this need cannot be overstated. If we do not stand in that space — between the unread word and the unseen child — the silence will fill itself with noise. But when Elders enter the circle, when our voices shape the air, we become the grammar of survival.

Now is the hour for elderhood to rise — not as nostalgia, but as necessity.
Let the word return to the people.
Let our presence translate the pages.
Let comprehension be the new revolution.