Can you read? Imagine if you could not. You would still identify warning signs, you would still recognize "Stop" and "Go" at the intersection, and you would even be able to keep a halfway decent job. What would happen when you had to fill out a form, such as a tax return? Simple, you would have someone else do it for you.
For literacy and illiteracy, the definition is not simply "the ability to read," but has many levels associated with it. For instance, I can read the newspaper, the latest bestseller, and my science magazines, but I cannot understand the latest technical journal to come out of MIT. By the strictest definitions of literacy I am not illiterate, but, in a sense, my ability to read has its limits. Here, in this gray area, is where most of the problems occur, and they usually occur unnoticed. (Fordham 3)
There are several problems and levels associated with literacy.
Most people can already read fairly well All Literates assume everyone else can read Most of our culture's instructions are in written form only Most Illiterates are embarrassed about their disadvantage You can always pay someone to do it for you Most Illiterates can read enough to just get by
The most obvious of the above is number one. You can read, I can read, so can most of your friends.
Number two comes about as a product of number one. If you and I can read, and your friends and my friends can read, then it is likely everyone else can read, too.
Because (almost) everyone can read, it seems only elementary that we would write everything down that's truly important, and that's where number three comes in. "Write it down or you'll forget it." My Mother's words ring in my ears every time I make a business call, or a professor tells me where my exam is.
Number five is where the real problems arise. It's not so bad if you can't read, it's bad when you won't get help. Since the populous can read, and it's natural to feel inferior when everyone can do something so easy and you can't, most illiterate people never get help.
When you are scared or embarrassed, or both, you tend to ask someone to do it for you, number five. Remember your elementary school days? Remember that cute girl or boy? You were so afraid they might not like you, so you ask a close friend (for me it was my Mom) to ask them for you. In a nation of convenience, it's only too easy to pay a lawyer to do your tax form, or an accountant to run your business. I know many successful businessmen who never learned to read. They simply had enough resources to let someone else run their company, while they sit back and enjoy.
And in number six: It's true, most people who "can't read" actually can, somewhat. They know numbers, how to construct basic sentences, and some basic vocabulary words, buzz words if you will. (Fordham 3)
And as far as jobs go, many illiterates get by just by learning enough to keep a job. Jackie works in a California bank. When asked if she needs reading or writing skills, she responds "I don't think so, 'cause, say, if you don't know how to spell somebody's name, when they first come up to you, they have to give you their California ID. So you could look on there and put it in the compute like that... push it in on those buttons." (Hull 3)
It is also necessary to point out who the illiterates are. Some are Americans who grew up never learning English. Others are workers who never completed their schooling and never needed to learn how to read. Some are immigrants with English as a second language. Whatever the case, they all still need to be educated for their own good. (Fordham
To show you how large the problem really is, please check out the next page: Statistics >>
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