The Problem of Literacy

Lately I’ve been writing about my personal, individual experiences with tutoring two girls at the literacy council. I enjoy blogging my reflections and I find it useful, but perhaps it may also be valuable to readers of this blog that I give a broad overview of the state of literacy in the US as I understand it. My individual experiences may be interesting, and hopefully readers learn something, but I am not convinced that my personal role at the council explains the issue in a way that provokes others to want to rectify it. 

America has a literacy rate of 99%, and since it is so close to 100%, many often overlook the problem of literacy in this country. (Those people that overlook the problem are usually able to read, write, perform basic arithmetic functions and work fairly well on a computer, however. Those people that overlook the problem also tend to have an income.)

Numbers, however, can be deceiving. Though some people may be literate in that they can read and write English, many have a below basic understanding of reading/writing/mathematics. Those people tend to drop out of high school, but without basic literacy skills they cannot obtain a GED. And without a GED, thousands of jobs are unattainable and the government is forced to pay those people unemployment. Many times, those people want to have jobs—they just have no way of teaching themselves, either because of a lack of understanding or a lack of practice materials. I anticipate certain backlash to the idea of funding a literary council, particularly as our country is in a recession, but I want to point out that an illiterate citizenry costs the country much more than a literacy council does. 

To get an understanding of that 99% of literate Americans, let’s look at some figures compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics. They administer a survey every ten years called the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) that quantifies the US literacy problem.  In a survey of those 16 and over, the results for prose literacy are as follows:

Prose literacy tests include both fiction and nonfiction works, so both stories and newspapers fall under this category. According to the chart, 30 million people are capable of “no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills.” 30 million people may not be able to read a newspaper properly or even read a book to their children. 

But this is a national statistic, and Pennsylvania is much better off, right? That statistic includes immigrant-heavy zones like lower Florida, the Southwest, and California, so the abundance of ESL citizens may affect those ranking—but let’s look at Franklin County, where I tutor, and assess the problem.

In a population size of 103,549, 13% of those tested placed at a below basic comprehension/understanding of prose. In other words, about 13,461 wouldn’t be able to pass their GED if they dropped out of high school without proper support and encouragement.

This number astounds me. Hopefully it astounds you as well. Volunteer work at a Literacy Council is helping, one person at a time, to shape an entire community, your community. If you forget about the enormous national number and just focus on one county at a time, it becomes manageable. Perhaps I could not feel like I was making a difference if I only looked at that staggering 30 million below the levels of basic literacy. But if I devote myself to just Franklin County, and just those two students I help every week (for now), I can see right away that I am making a difference. I focus so heavily on those two students in my reflections on this blog, but at times it is valuable to look at the bigger picture and realize those incremental changes that are being made. 

From a purely economical standpoint, it costs the country money to fund those who are illiterate. Many more skills and experience are required today to find employment and the market is competitive. Education is more important than ever.

But it is not mere economics that supports the role of a Literacy Council. From a humanist standpoint, every person deserves the right to seek assistance when they are struggling, especially when that person is actively seeking a way to better their life situation. Education not only creates a better workforce; it creates a better community. According to a brochure I found at the Literacy Council, “higher literacy levels in a community coincide with lower levels of crime and human rights abuse.” With education comes compassion, empathy, and genuine caring, and it is those characteristics that create a positive community.

So hopefully, after all of this, you understand that just because America is 99% literate, it does not mean we all have proficient literacy skills. Within that large group there are millions of people who could not effectively read current events on their own or fill out a job application without assistance. But this number can change, and that 99% can become more reflective of a literate America if volunteers are willing to give a little time to those who need help learning and re-learning comprehension, passage analysis, mathematics, and vocabulary. We can chip away at that 30 million by focusing on the 13,000 in our community and doing something about it.

To find out more about NAAL, click here.