Why Literacy Is Important to Me

Written by Lori Caruthers Collins, Ed.D.

When I hear the word literacy, I immediately smile. The image of my childhood books pops into my head. I found them to be a safe space as a young child. As I became a wife, mother, and educator, books helped me understand my different roles and identities—the family space, the parent space, and the educator space. Along my journey, books also helped shape MY SPACE as a Black female with different identities and roles in K-16 institutions.

“Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”
In the second grade, I learned and recited the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes and never forgot the message: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” This has resonated with me since I’ve learned how the struggle can make you great. This poem is an example of how early literature began shaping my worldview, and its message has echoed through every space I’ve occupied.

My Life Shaped by Story
For me, books weren’t just entertainment; they were refuge, guidance, and affirmation. As a child, they offered safety. As a wife and mother, they helped me navigate new roles. As an educator and a Black woman moving through K–16 spaces, they became tools for understanding, resistance, and self-definition. Literacy became lived experience, not just skill.

Our Family Library as a Living Archive
As a mother, my three children taught me so much about their world through the books they enjoyed reading. These books formed a kind of generational bookshelf—one that traces their growth and my evolving understanding of them:

• The Snowy Day — a quiet revolution in representation
• The Berenstain Bears — family, values, and gentle lessons
• Junie B. Jones — humor, voice, and childhood honesty
• Garfield — satire about human behavior
• Goosebumps — imagination and thrill
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid — identity and social navigation
• The Hunger Games — power, justice, and agency
• Of Mice and Men — moral complexity and empathy

Each title marks a moment in their lives and mine. I wasn’t just watching them read—I was learning who they were becoming.

With each generation in our family, both in the past and into the future, we will continue to expand this living archive as our messages, family history, education, friendships, and life experiences shape it:

• Grandfather (1923-2017)
• Grandmother (1919-2021)
• Dad (1934-2015)
• Mom (1938-)
• My older sister
• Me
• My younger brother
• My husband (now “wasband”) & father to our children
• My two sons + daughter-in-law
• My daughter & her fiancé
• My grand fur baby, Frenchie Ghost Saint Collins