Can People Read?

     "America is facing a literacy crisis with no happy ending in sight," says Lauren Smyth. Nearly a quarter of U.S. adults are illiterate. That's 130 million people who can't read a simple story - like this blog - to their children or sound out more than a few basic words. 

     The problem isn't just high school dropouts, those with disabilities, and non-English. It affects university students, working professionals, and those who grew up speaking English at home. It goes beyond the inability to enjoy books, skim websites and write emails. Medication instructions, ingredient labels, and posted warnings can conceal deadly risks from nonreaders.   

     National literacy rates also have far-reaching implications for social development. Poverty, crime and literacy correlate so strongly that some states look at elementary reading scores to predict how many prison beds they will need in future years. 

     In Canada, Doug Allen teaches a writing class for university students in their fourth year. Recently, he had 20 students, 11 of which were failing. He said, "Two-thirds of our students are coming out of high school with a vocabulary of about 200 words. Their strategy for reading is to guess." 

     We know that America's awesome beginning didn't include schools. Our founders could read English, Latin and probably Hebrew. Everyone else just worked. 

     Today, words are far more necessary for most of us. 

                Jimmy