The potential of literacy should be more than proficiency levels

Everyone agrees teaching children to read is important. What we don't agree on is how we measure our success. Our policy makers and political leaders view accountability as cut off scores on standardized measures. They like quantifiable measures, neat little numbers that box literacy into perfect little boxes.
The problem with this type of accountability is it misses the point that what we read and write about has the potential to make us more empathic, more caring, more open, and better human beings.
I recognized the kind of man I wanted to be in the ninth grade when we read Harper Lee's To Kill A Mocking Bird. I saw it right there on the page in one
Atticus Finch. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
What if rather than choose either A, B, C, D, or none of the above, we chase something greater than something quantifiable? What if we realized the real power of reading and writing can't be boxed into proficiency levels.
What if the goal is to read and write to build character, to value freedom and to care for our neighbors and ourselves?
Imagining something bigger than little boxes,
Dr. Jesse Patrick Turner

If you want to listen to what I was listening to on my walk this morning....it's "Teach Your Children" by Crosby Stills,
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVaqZajq-I <