I couldn't find a pen!

By Cortney Philip

HappyNews Citizen Journalist

I have a confession to make: I'm a ridiculously lousy packer. Right now, everything I own is precariously stacked in unlabeled boxes. As if that isn't disorganized enough, I can't seem to put just one kind of thing in a box. Books got packed with soon-to-be-due bills, clothes with knick-knacks and bed sheets with dishes. Usually my lack of a system works in my favor because I can pack quickly and later enjoy the rediscovery of my things.

This time though, my system let me down. Not by any fault of its own but simply because I haven't had time to unpack.

When it came time to write the checks for the security deposit and first month's rent, I found myself fishing in my purse for a pen to go with my checkbook. The only writing implement I came up with was a Sharpie, and I don't think the leasing agent was too pleased with my marker-scribbled checks.

Later that night at work, someone stole my Sharpie. No big deal, I told myself. I'm sure I'll find another pen at home.

Not so, it turned out. I found more notebooks than I could shake a stick at but not a single cup full of pens, pencils, markers or crayons. They must all be in the boxes on the bottoms of the stacks or perhaps in the unreachable middle. Oh well. I can live another day or two without a pen.

Left without a pen, I couldn't make my neurotic to-do lists. Post-It reminders were out of the question, and forget about jotting down that random musing to save for later. The perfect sentence that popped into my head? Totally forgotten. I felt vaguely helpless, like my left arm had been cut off.

What's the point of this incredibly long story about my lack of a pen for a day and a half?

The point is that newspapers lament the decline of public school education, citing Cuba's higher literacy rate than the U.S. and high school graduates that can't read or write. Supposedly, children will not read for fun if left to their own devices; they must be told by their teachers and shown by their avidly reading parents that reading is a worthwhile pastime.

Supposedly, the book will become a thing of the past in a few years. E-books, e-publishing and e-machines that make reading e-books easier all threaten to make printed books obsolete.

But people still buy books. Just like a PDA or Blackberry can never truly take the place of old-fashioned pencil and paper writing, e-books can't replicate the smell or feel of a bound book. When it comes to writing, standardized tests for children in all states now have a writing component. This way, teachers are "forced" to teach their students to write so their schools achieve the scores they need for adequate funding.

As a graduate of public schools, I can attest that teachers must be doing something right because in the pre-writing component of standardized tests era, they sure taught me to write. And love it. And I know I'm not the only one out there who feels that way.

What I'm getting at is that if the idea of not putting a pen to paper for 36 hours scares me that badly, the overall state of literacy can't be as bad as some would like us to believe. And I didn't even want a pen to do any sort of lofty writing—I just wanted to use my basic literacy skills to perform routine daily tasks.

For those of us who don't go nuts at the Borders' new release display or write just for the fun of it, the notion of using everyday literacy may not be something that occurs to us. We take our basic skills for granted by not recognizing the everyday importance of objects like pens, and we claim others lack functionality.

I challenge anyone reading this to go a day without a pen. You will gain a newfound respect for your own literacy, as well as how often everyday writing tasks go unrecognized and underappreciated.

From what should have been a less-than-traumatic experience, I certainly learned that literacy is alive and kicking and probably not going anywhere anytime soon.

This story was produced by HappyNews Citizen Journalist, Cortney Philip. Philip lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan and works as a freelance writer.

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