Changing Literacy In America

Imagine waking up to an unfamiliar world. A world that only may seem familiar due to years spent breathing, but not living. In this unfamiliar world, one can only imagine the panic and frustrations illiterates face each day as they coexist. An expert on this issue, Jonathan Kozol, wrote a book that deals with his theories of illiterates in America. He mentions how democracy is sacrificed from lack of acknowledgement of this issue. While focusing on chapter four in his novel, Kozol highlights real life hardships for illiterates and defends that their freedoms are nonexistent. In Jonathan Kozol’s essay, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society”, he presents the major costs and dangers from illiterates that impact our society as a whole and that our nation fails to address.

Writer Jonathan Kozol, in the essay “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society,” suggests that the alarming rates of illiteracy in the U.S. are corroding the fundamentals of democracy, reinforcing the structures of inequality that created the problem to begin with. His argument draws on a range of evidence and support from multiple sources such as philosophers and historical figures, anecdotes, and first-person accounts. Kozol’s purpose is to not simply illustrate the various personal tragedies that people with underdeveloped reading skills face, but to tell his audience that such tragedies when you add them up constitute a threat to the basic values that maintain the nation as a whole.

In “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society”, a chapter from book called Illiterate America (1985), the author Jonathan Kozol highlights that society cannot continue to sustain if we all neglect 60 million Americans who suffer from illiteracy. Kozol develops his claim by utilizing logos and pathos on describing the hardships that illiterates experience on a daily basis including their political rights. His purpose is to inform non-illiterates about the kind of life that illiterates go through, in order to bring the awareness on illiteracy. Kozol establishes sympathy relationship towards illiteracy and intended audience are two types of non-illiterate Americans who are not aware on suffering of illiterates and who blames illiterates without

By this fact, it can be seen that there is a relation to the decline in America’s economy and the percentage of illiterate people. The ability to read affects our nations money spending as well as, “it costs an estimated $100-200 billion per year in unemployment, welfare, health care, and incarceration costs” (Sachwitz). This fact can be proven in Larry Roberts’ article saying that 44 million out of the 191 million adults in America do not have the ability to fill out a job

Statistically, based on reports from 2003, 99% of the total population ages 15 and over can read and write (CIA Library). Thus, one can conclude illiteracy is not a crisis. However, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” by Jonathan Kozol, implies something different. Kozol emphasizes the hardship of an illiterate, and briefly explains the importance of helping an illiterate without providing much of a solution, while Kozol’s essay was ineffective overall because of the lack of factual evidence and flawed conclusions, his strategic use of tone, repetition and rhetorical questioning provided some strength to his argument.

Imagine not being able to read this essay. Many Americans do not posses the ability to do what you just did. In Jonathan Kozol’s essay titled, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society,” he exposes the complications of being illiterate as well as how it affects a person on a social, personal, and financial level. He brings to light the troubles illiterates go through right from the beginning, and takes repeated stabs at the way they function, and how it brings extreme troubles. Kozol effectively educates and exploits the overlooked troubles of being illiterate, by providing examples of their embarrassment, using repetition emphasizing on their limitations, and making assertions to explain how they survive.

Throughout the world social problems such as illiterate, elderly, handicapped, minority groups, and poverty have been the biggest part in our society for many years. Some of our social problems had died off, meanwhile, they’re still many problem that we are still facing as a society. One of the major social problem we face is people being illiterate. Being illiterate is meaning a person can not read nor write, and it can also mean that a person is grammatically incorrect. There is as much as 23% of the adult population that are ignorant to basic skills of the 4th grade level. In the U.S. the ethnic group that is most affected by not being able to read or write is

Literacy rates have declined at a rapid rate due to the neglect of available educational resources and opportunities. Our country has failed at preparing our youth and will continue to do so unless a change is made. A decline in literacy rates have been a result of many unnecessary changes that may lead our country into a literacy depression. Improper education, limited access to books, technology, and poor role models all has made literacy spiral downward. We should ask ourselves what we can do and not try to do in order to make literacy rates rise.

Cynthia Haven is the writer of an article called “The New Literacy: Stanford study finds richness and complexity in students' writing” that is a study based on the amount of writing college students do. She followed students at Stanford during their undergraduate years and the first year after that. She discovered that today’s students are writing more than any generation before it. Cynthia had the students she was studying submit all of the writing they did, academic or personal. She found that only 62 percent of the work submitted to her was for classes; the rest of the material was “Life writing”.

Alliterate is when someone can read, but choose not to. Illiteracy is when someone cannot read. People in America are alliterate and some are illiterate. This problem can be caused by a few different things such as laziness, environment, money, and drive. In the article The No-Book Report: Skim It and Weep it states that in 1991more than half of the American society used to read and least a half hour a day and by 1999 the number had dropped to 45 percent of the population. It also says the in 1999 Gallup Poll found out that only seven percent of people in America were voracious readers and 59 percent of people in America had not read more than 10 books in the past year. In 2013 things were not looking much better on average 32 million adult

In the essay “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” written by Jonathan Kozol, published in Reading for writers in New York, 2013. The author raises awareness to the effect illiteracy has on society by using dramatized real world situations to better convey his message. Mr.Kozol also supports his argument with statistics to demonstrate how illiteracy can have an impact that extends further than just one individual. Presenting us with data from the 1980 presidential election, Mr.Kozol argues that had the illiterate population been better informed it is likely that the outcome would have been different.

Americans are not being literate enough overall the United States has been a country that has involved many kinds of technology throughout the years and one thing that has technology is the school system because they do not actually use them to make an overall effect like before because the technology that is being involved in the education of the students. First, let's start off by defining the word literature, meaning that the word literature means depending a person knows or is able to read and write. As the description Americans are not literate in many ways because there are particular cause and effects that have been able to affect the American Nation to improve their literacy levels. Also that it shows that many

Summary: In the essay, The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” written by Jonathan Kozol, and published in Readings for Writers in 2013, Mr. Kozol is raising awareness to the literate society about the danger our people are heading towards with the lack of literacy in our country. Kozol used a few strong points to prove his point. First, the voters of our country; how they cast their vote on the candidate that attracts their eye the most. Secondly, real life situations of how people go about being illiterate. Lastly, personal stories; how it made it a bigger concern in his life.

I find your report interesting, especially the fact about the school board, I wish the realize how they affecting many students literacy. I believe that they should let the students choose their own book to read because in my case a well, I saw this as a hindered factor to my literacy. It interfered my literacy by discouraging me read, it took out the fun of reading. I'm glad that you had someone who helped you see how amusing reading while learning can be. In conclusion, any books can enhance owns literature, it just need to be interesting which would make them want to read more and as we all know the more you read the more knowledge you get.

“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations-something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.” - Katherine Patterson. Literacy is a right. It is implicit in the right to education. It is recognized as a right, explicitly for both children and adults, in certain international conventions. Literacy is the ability to read and write, and also refers to having enough reading and writing ability to function in society. People who cannot read and write are called illiterate. People are called functionally illiterate if they cannot read or write well enough to do activities that are common in social settings they encounter. Such activities may include employment, schoolwork, voting, or worship. The power of literacy is something that can change the world. How far has literacy come since the beginning and what is its history; what are the causes of a lower literacy rate; what effects can lower literacy rates have; what about higher rates; what are some ways to improve the literacy rates and; what are some of the benefits to a higher literacy rate?