Harnessing curiosity to combat illiteracy

To see if the experience could be replicated, in 2014 Galyean cofounded the organization Curious Learning with Stephanie Gottwald, who was then the assistant director at the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University. They set themselves the audacious goal of ending illiteracy worldwide. 

“Curious Learning has a simple mission, which is to give everybody the opportunity to read, and we are doing that through the proliferation of free apps based on the neuroscience of how the brain learns,” Galyean says. As he recounts in his new book, Reframe: How Curiosity and Literacy Can Redefine Us (Business Expert Press, 2025), scientific studies have demonstrated the power of curiosity in learning. “Research shows when you are in a curious state of mind, it activates your brain chemistry in a way that reinforces the neural pathways,” Galyean says. “It doesn’t matter what you’re curious about—whatever information you see next, you will learn more quickly.” 

Currently, nearly 800 million adults worldwide cannot read. Concentrations of illiteracy are greatest in India, where 88% of children do not reach minimum proficiency levels, and sub-Saharan Africa, where 90% of children fall short. With Africa set to explode in population over the next two decades, “we’re effectively projected to add a billion more illiterate people to the planet,” he says. At the same time, literacy is crucial to improvements in many other areas, including education, employment, and health. “It’s the lever to every other large development issue we’ve been trying to solve, but it’s never made a priority because it’s never the most immediate issue,” he says.

PIERRE TOSTEE

Galyean, whose MIT studies included experimenting with 3D animation and virtual reality when those technologies were new, went on to design interactive exhibits for science museums and animation for children’s television. This positioned him well to design and distribute creative literacy apps. 

Today, Curious Learning operates in 60 languages, reaching an estimated 1 million households a year with downloadable games designed to spur children’s natural curiosity. One called “Feed the Monster,” for example, encourages kids to care for a creature by feeding it the right letters. 

Results have been impressive. In one South African community, 100% of children became literate in Zulu and 50% in English after four years, Galyean reports. Within the next few years, Galyean hopes to scale up the organization to reach 10 million children a year. In Reframe, Galyean not only recounts the nonprofit’s journey but also explores how the quest has changed the way he thinks about education.

“The traditional system is built on the idea that you have to prove yourself to gain admission to have access to education, because it’s a limited resource,” he says. “We’re now at a time in history where we can rethink how educational learning opportunities can be delivered.”