Reading: an essential activity in our society

PETAA (Primary English Teaching Association Australia) has published a text called 'The alphabetic principle and beyond... surveying the landscape' (edited by Robyn Cox, Susan Feez and Lorraine Beveridge). Chapter 1 is titled Reading: an essential activity in our society, and includes the paragraph below:

Reading is an activity that, perhaps more than any other in our time, shaped the trajectory of our lives. In the act of reading, a configuration of skills, knowledge and dispositions coalesces in ways that enable the reader to make meaning from written text. The ability to read is the foundation of learning in our educational institutions and in the wider community. Learning to read, and reading to learn, are precursors to social and cultural participation and fulfilment, improved health and wellbeing, and material advantage - in summary, to what counts as a successful life in contemporary developed societies. (p.2)