The novel Hävitys, which describes school violence, won the 2022 fiction Finlandia. Writer Iida Rauma has emphasized the position of children. In his speech, he highlighted the importance of literacy.
Here is Iida Rauma’s full speech:
Dear literature lovers,
It’s sad to be reminded at a celebration like this that the books are running out of readers. And that’s not even the worst problem.
During the past year, I have spoken a lot about societal oppression of children. The weakening of young people’s reading skills – or weakening – is at the heart of it. The thought of a 15-year-old, practically illiterate person is overwhelming. Nine years have been taken from his life, his freedom has been restricted and his self-determination has been compromised. In return, he has not received even this most important survival skill in the modern world.
I wonder what he has learned in school if not reading? Most likely he is stupid, bad at learning.
I’m not so much worried about losing readership. Not everyone needs to read fiction. Instead, I fear social inequality and the collapse of democracy.
\”Differentiated\” literacy means unequal people. A literate person is critical and difficult to manage. An illiterate person is defenseless, gullible and weak. It is useless to imagine that someone would not benefit from this.
My mother, a kindergarten teacher, laments how reading aloud to children has decreased in kindergartens. The campaign called \”October is the month of study\” has stuck in my mind from his speeches.
It was horrible for my mother. You can’t learn reading in a month. It is learned when the child is read to every day, week after week and year after year. As long as the child wants to read by himself.
Literacy should not hang on different campaigns and strategies like a loose log. It should not be a side plot of the curriculum or an extra burden on the necks of exhausted classroom teachers.
Literacy is one of the most fundamental gifts adults can give children.
Writing a novel is considered an individual sport, but I wouldn’t be standing here without my parents, who tirelessly read to me when I was a child, or without my wonderful first-grade teacher who took my class to the library every week, or the encouraging librarian at Littoinen library.