But Where Are the Youth? on the Value of Integrating Youth Culture into Literacy Theo

“Literacy is at the heart of world development and human rights,” writes Federico Mayor in the opening line of his foreword to Literacy: An International Handbook.’ Although this quote comes from only one of the texts from which this essay builds, it could actually be the opening line of any of the three books: Literacy as a Moral Imperative, Literacy for the Twenty-First Century, and Literacy: An International Handbook2 The authors of each text state clearly their belief in the power and promise of literacy even while they acknowledge the potential problem of literacy crusades, as Daniel Wagner does in his introduction to The Handbook: