Literacy

In today's society it seems necessary that literacy is required to merely function in everyday life. There is little reason to believe that literacy could be a problem in this day and age. Yet Jonathon Kozol, using research garnered from various sources and his own experience, claims that nearly a third of adult Americans cannot read. His explanation for the way illiterate people get through the day is eye opening.

A man goes to work everyday. He purchases the New York Times. He enters the office and manages to get his boss to fully explain his assignment. He is an illustrator. That evening he goes home. The Times goes on a pile with the other unread Times from previous dates. Once a week they are put out to the trash, still unread. According to Kozol, instances such as these are not the exception that we might think they are. They're much more common than we could ever imagine.

It has been estimated that less than five percent of the illiterate population in America, receive aid. The reasons for this are manifold. Who wants to admit that despite twelve years in the public school system that they reached adulthood without learning to read well, or just not at all? Also the money is just not there. Few states are willing to admit to a problem such as this. It is almost as if they would be saying that their public schools had failed. Admitting failure is not a viable option for governments in this day and age. The federal government also attempts to help illiterates but it devotes scant resources to such a profound problem. Even in states such as Utah, which is one of the leaders in state educational spending, Kozol claims that 200,000 individuals were illiterate in the early 1980s.