Adult Illiteracy in the United States- Helpless, Hopeless, and Handicapped

DEFINITION

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, literacy is “using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential…illiteracy is the inability to use printed and written information to function in society, achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential”.  It is important to understand that literacy is not just about being able to read, it is an absolute fundamental requirement in this society from daily life, acquiring a job, visiting a doctor, or voting- reading is prevalent in every part of this country.  Being illiterate means being unable to thrive in this society.

CAUSES

Adults often suffer from illiteracy because society only is concerned with children at school developing the reading skill.  According to Gallego and Hollinsworth, “there are three types of literacy which coexist in society: school literacy, community literacy, and personal literacy.”  Since schools focus greatly on literacy, many adults after schooling believe literacy was only required for school and thus are unwilling to become more literate.  Another argument, according to Nespor, is that after schooling if the adult views themselves as a poor reader, “these types of labels can cause low self-confidence, which often means that the adult will not seek out literacy help”.  Finally, McKenna lists what he believes are reading attributes which include impact of reading, beliefs about reading, and learner’s experiences with reading.  His claim is that whether those attributes are positive or negative impacts whether the person is literate or illiterate.  For example, if a student was always bullied for being a bookworm in school, he might associate reading with negative emotions and thus give up reading.  Illiteracy can also extend to family background where households who do not value literacy/unable to read result in illiterate children.

SOLUTIONS

According to the US Department of Education and National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the US can’t read, 14% of the population.  Even further, 21% of adults cannot read below a 5th grade level, and 19% of high school graduates can’t read!  Clearly, there needs to be solutions to combat this issue as it affects a huge amount of Americans.  The first solution, according to Belzer, is to help adult learners separate their literacy experiences in school and adulthood.  “These experience can then become the key to learning as they unlock some deep-held beliefs and convictions about literacy”.  Essentially, through this process, they will discover why they have problems with literacy.  His idea is to develop a literacy autobiography to of their literacy lifetime experiences.  Another idea is to use informative/practical texts to educate the learner which allows them to realize how beneficial literacy is in jobs and society.  These texts should be catered to their interests and help them overcome this obstacle.  According to Earl, using incentives in adult learning is crucial in regard to literacy.  Providing rewards increases their motivation to read and write.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Adult Illiteracy (Distance Learning).” Whatwhenhow RSS, what-when-how.com/distance-learning/adult-illiteracy-distance-learning/.

This article analyzes adult illiteracy in America through the definition of the word “literacy”, statistical information, historical attempts to address the issue, causes of adult illiteracy, solutions to the problem, and goals for their future development.  They argue that adult literacy is crucial to function in society, where illiterates are often cheated out of better jobs, proper health care, and schooling for their children.  Due to over a fifth of the population being classified as illiterate, this issue needs to be addressed through various solutions.

LITERACY CLAIM: IDEOLOGICAL PERCEPTION OF ILLITERATE ADULTS

Illiterate adults often remain in their disadvantageous position due to negative and embarrassing societal perception.  According to a NY Times article, a woman never tried to become literate due to fear of how people would react to her learning setback.  According to the article above, the stigma of literacy should be tackled: “These excuses or refusals (of illiteracy) are often a simple cover-up of the embarrassment and shame that the adult feels..if the stigma can be broken, adults might be encouraged to admit their poor skills and receive help that is desperately needed”.  Therefore, the best way to solve this literacy epidemic is to make the idea of illiteracy as not a failure, but a positive experience that can be addressed.  This connects to the the huge story of how Bella Thorne admitted she suffers from dyslexia which makes reading much harder for her.  This enabled many people to come out as having dyslexia as well.  The same scenario can be transcended to adult literacy.  If the negative stigma of adult illiteracy is removed, the 5th of the population will feel free to admit their issue and become an important part of society once more.

Singing off,

Delectable Danielle