| The word is not just a sound or a written symbol. | | | | educational issue - someone else's problem. However, |
| The word is a force; it is the power you have to | | | | more recently we have come to understand the |
| express and communicate, to think, and thereby to | | | | economic consequences of the lack of literacy skills |
| create the events in your life. - Don Miguel Ruiz | | | | for America and American business. |
| One New Jersey woman, "Maria," read at a third | | | | Illiteracy has a significant impact on the economy. |
| grade level. She held a job and fudged her way | | | | According to Nation's Business magazine, 15 million |
| through everyday tasks without reading. When she | | | | adults holding jobs today are functionally illiterate. The |
| would go to a restaurant, she would order what she | | | | American Council of Life Insurance reports that three |
| knew was on the menu - a hamburger, salad or | | | | quarters of the Fortune 500 companies provide some |
| grilled chicken - or point to someone else's plate at | | | | level of remedial training for their workers. And, a |
| the next table and ask "for what he's having." Maria | | | | study done by the Northeast Midwest Institute and |
| even went so far as to keep her illiteracy a secret | | | | The Center for Regional Policy found that business |
| even from her husband of ten years. Because she | | | | losses attribute to basic skill deficiencies run into the |
| could not read the mail, she would pretend that she | | | | hundreds of millions of dollars because of low |
| forgot her glasses at work or say that she had been | | | | productivity, errors and accidents. |
| too busy to open the mail and ask her husband to do | | | | In addition, as reported in the 1986 publication entitled |
| it. One day, they were walking past a shop window | | | | Making Literacy Programs Work: A Practical Guide for |
| with a sign in it. As they looked at the display, the | | | | Correctional Educators (for the U.S. Department of |
| husband suddenly realized that his wife could not | | | | Justice, National Institute of Corrections), one-half of |
| read. Maria was embarrassed and humiliated. But she | | | | all adults in federal and state correctional institutions |
| sought help and now reads, works on a computer | | | | cannot read or write at all. Only about one-third of |
| and teaches others to read. | | | | those in prison have completed high school. |
| In 2002, before the Subcommittee on Education | | | | Evidence indicates that the problem begins at home. |
| Reform Committee on Education and the Workforce, | | | | A National Governors' Association Task Force on |
| United States House of Representatives, actor | | | | Adult Literacy reported that illiteracy is an |
| James Earl Jones testified: "92 million Americans have | | | | inter-generational problem, following a parent-child |
| low or very low literacy skills - they cannot read | | | | pattern. Poor school achievement and dropping out |
| above the 6th grade level. To be illiterate in America - | | | | before completing school are commonplace among |
| or anywhere for that matter - is to be unsafe, | | | | children of illiterate parents. |
| uncomfortable and unprotected. For the illiterate, | | | | The reasons for illiteracy are as varied as the number |
| despair and defeat serve as daily fare. Can any of us | | | | of non-readers. The adult non-reader may have left |
| who do know how to read really understand the | | | | school early, may have had a physical or emotional |
| sadness that is associated with the inability to read? | | | | disability, may have had ineffectual teachers or simply |
| Can we truly relate to the silent humiliation, the quiet | | | | may have been unready to learn at the time reading |
| desperation that can't be expressed, the hundreds of | | | | instruction began. |
| ways that those who cannot read struggle in shame | | | | Because they are unable to help their children learn, |
| to keep their secret? The struggle out of illiteracy ... | | | | parents who can't read often perpetuate the |
| is still a part of the story of America." | | | | inter-generational cycle of illiteracy. Without books, |
| Today, our nation faces an epidemic that is | | | | newspapers or magazines in the home and a parent |
| destructive to our future. The disease is functional | | | | who reads to serve as a role model, many children |
| illiteracy. According to the most recent National | | | | grow up with severe literacy deficiencies. Clearly, |
| Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), it has | | | | there is no single cause of illiteracy. |
| overtaken one-third of America's children by the | | | | Adults have many reasons for requesting reading |
| fourth grade - including two-thirds of | | | | help. Many are prompted by the need for increased |
| African-American students and almost half of all | | | | levels of literacy in their jobs. Others may wish to |
| children in the inner cities. | | | | read to a child, read the Bible or write to a family |
| The basic definition of literacy is the ability to read | | | | member for the first time. All express a hope for a |
| and write. So the basic definition of illiteracy is the | | | | better quality of life through higher levels of literacy. |
| inability to read and write. | | | | According to Barbara Bush, "It suddenly occurred to |
| Beyond the basic definitions, there is significance in | | | | me that every single thing I worry about - the |
| the shocking statistics about the functionally illiterate. | | | | breakup of families, drugs, AIDS, the homeless - |
| What illiteracy means is that millions may not be able | | | | everything would be better if more people could |
| to understand the directions on a medicine bottle, or | | | | read, write and understand." |
| be able to read their telephone bill, make correct | | | | Let us all do what we can to make illiteracy not a |
| change at a store, find and keep a job, or read to a | | | | part of the story of American today but a part of |
| child. | | | | America's past. |
| Illiteracy has long been viewed as a social and | | | | |