Illiteracy in America

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Illiteracy in America

Walking into a class room full of seniors, one might not suspect that some of the students can not read above a third grade reading level (Mcmaster). In fact one million teenagers from the ages of 12 and 17 do not have the reading ability of a third grader. Literacy among American people is important because it affects our economy greatly. Not only that but it also affects the lives of the American population. Illiteracy is a large problem within the United States that can be reasonably solved using different tactics.

Illiteracy is detrimental to any society. First people must know what it is before the problem can be fixed. Illiteracy can be defined as the inability to read or write. Lately illiteracy has been moved up to the ability to comprehend what one reads or writes. There are 40 to 44 million adults alone in the United States that do not have the ability to comprehend words that they are reading. This is an enormous problem that can lead to even more devastating effects.

Another step before solving the problem is that one must also know the roots of it. One of the many sources of illiteracy is right in the home. Many parents do not take the time to read to their children when they are at an early age. This introduces them to phonics and reading. It has been proven that children who have had their parents read to them have been known to have higher literary abilities (Sachwitz). Children who start learning about reading at an early age have a head start when they begin to have formal education. This leads to better acceptance of received material which in turn helps for a much better education. Another problem was a program inserted into the schooling system called the “Who...

... middle of paper ...

...r America to live in.

Literacy is a catastrophic problem around the world. With the information age coming in at blazing speeds, literacy is needed among every one in the nation. To solve literacy’s problems must effectively the United States must go the roots of where illiteracy begins. When this starts to happen nation wide, all able will be able to have the ability to read. How else would a nation survive in a literate world with out being literate itself?

Works Cited

Mcmaster, Scott. “Illiteracy”. http://bvsd.k12.co.us/schools/cent/Newspaper/dec97/p7/stories/mcmaster.html. December 1997

Roberts, Larry. “Illiteracy on the Rise in America”. http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/oct1998 /ill-o14.shtml. October 1998.

Sachwitz, Jennifer. “Illiteracy in America: Past, Present, and Future”. http://www.uah.edu/colleges/liberal/education/S1998/jen.html. 1998

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