Illiteracy in American Post 2

    I have found that illiteracy has a lot to do with poverty. In 1st grade many of the students who come from a lower income family have far smaller vocabularies then those who come from higher class families.

This is often because illiterate adults do spend the time or energy checking their child's homework of grades. Not only don't they but if they tried many of them couldn't. This sets a bad example for the child as they don't see anything else. They often don't see a reason to go to school and do well. If their parents can't read, why should they be able to?

    Being able to read will allow these people to help their community in large and small ways. They will be able to do things as small as reading a lost dog poster,

or things as big as being informed in current events. People will be able to understand what is going on in their community, in their state, in their country. They will be able to form their own educated opinions without hearing already opinionated information from their friend down the street.

    I have always had such a deep connection with reading that the fact that there are so many people who can't leaves me baffled. At first I just don't understand. How could that happen? How did you not learn to read when you were little. It's amazing how much I pride myself on my ability to read. Even when I thought it was common, I liked it about myself. I guess I liked more how much I read.

    Although there are many programs that help both adults and children learn to read many adults are too embarrassed to admit that they need help. They don't want other people to know so they have a designated person to help them. A friend or relative will write or read things for them. The thing that I find most upsetting about this is that the friend or relative often doesn't try to help them learn, they just mindlessly do things for them. It's like the proverb, "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime." That directly describes this illiteracy problem. These relatives are "giving them a fish," doing them a favor. They will be helped for today but when tomorrow comes and a new letter or bill comes in the mail, they are still incapable. If these friends were to sit down and say, "I'm teaching you to read," it may be hard in the beginning but in a lifetime it would be less time then reading everything they need for them.

    Some of the programs that help kids and adults learn to read are the MCOL (Mayor's Commission on Literacy and Books Aloud. MCOL is an organization that helps to ensure that adults are getting a good enough education

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