Essay On Constitutional Illiteracy

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.

Literacy is having an understanding that oral language can be brought to life through print. Thoughts, that are translated in text or through writing, are used to inform, entertain or persuade the reader. Literacy (the ability to read and write) is a much-needed tool to survive in today’s society. Without it, one would become a life-long dependent. The building blocks for becoming a successful reader begin with emergent literacy.

Laurence H. Tribe and Michael C. Dorf wrote the article “How not the Read the Constitution” in an attempt to investigate the intended interpretation of the Constitution. It was commonly agreed form both wings of the American political system the wording of the constitution was vague weather left that way purposely or not. What the writers aim to state is that the Constitution was mean to serve as a guide to feature generations, and was left vague in order to reflect the continually changing American society. Other groups to this day who oppose this view, in favor of constitutional interpretation as the framers would have seen it. In order to be more applicable to society today though, It seems more appropriate that the constitution reflects

“While the authors of the United States Constitution are frequently portrayed as noble and idealistic statesmen who drafted a document based upon their conception of good government, reality is that the constitution reflects the politics of the drafting and ratification process. Unfortunately, the result is a document that is designed to produce an ineffective government, rather than a government that can respond to issues in a timely fashion.” In support of this conclusion, the issues of slavery, The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, and the civil rights struggle keenly demonstrate the ways in which our constitution hinders the expediency and effectiveness of America’s government. The constitution’s provisions towards voting eligibility and

Literacy has the power to transform us. By reading we learn new things and we are more likely to express ourselves to others. We can understand another’s language, other cultures, and know the way others way of thought.

Kozol argues that, “The number of illiterate adults exceeds by 16 million the entire vote cast for the winner in the 1980 presidential contest. Even if one third of all illiterates could vote in their self-interest, Ronald Reagan would not likely have been chosen president”(Kozol 149). When illiterate people choose a political figure to represent their views they do not know they are affecting themselves, as well as everyone else in the united states. Their vote impacts the United States because it determines who will make the important decisions, and create new policies. To be represented in what goes on in the surrounding community is a crucial aspect in democracy for illiterate people.

The United States Constitution established the nation’s national government and fundamental laws as well as implemented basic rights for all citizens. On September 17,1787, the United States Constitution was created by delegates in the Philadelphia, which allows each branch to uphold different work ethics and to ensure that each branch has equal authority. A written constitution clearly defines the limitation that each government, branches, and citizens can obtain in order to have a democracy world rather than a dictatorship. United States Constitution allows residents to understand their rights and to familiarize themselves with their state and federal government’s laws. It is important to understand that the written constitution does not

Have you ever wonder the process that the Founding Fathers of America had to go through to create our system of government? One of the vital pieces to establishing this government was the famous document known as the Constitution. The Constitution was a highly argued document, because many people were concerned about if it would protect the newly-separated country of america from the tyranny that they had faced with their previous king. The Constitution ended up being the people's’ savior after the delegates signed it in September 1787, and protected them from tyranny in their country even better than before. All and all, the Constitution guarded the United States against tyranny creating a system

Throughout the history of our country there are a handful of documents that have stood the test of time, however the documents that have remained relevant are ever more important today then when they were originally drafted. The U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptist Church are three documents that are still hold relevance in today’s societal discussions. These three documents hold truths, principals and ideologies that were and are crucial to the continuation and the development of the United States. The very ideas and tribulations that led to the development of the United States are expressed loudly in these three documents. While these documents are vastly different in content, they do all hold the same basic principals that create the framework of the United States.

The essay “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” written by Jonathan Kozol and published in Readings for Writers in 2013, conveyed an extremely important message throughout. Illiterate American’s struggle with simple daily tasks which many of us take for granted. The amount of illiterate people in our society is much higher than it should be. According to the essay, there are millions of Americans who fail to excel in the ability to read and write. Such a large number of people have a problem with this that evidence has shown that if those people were able to read and write and could consciously make a decision to vote for the president of the United States, there would likely have been a different outcome to the 1980 presidential election.

After taking the “Constitution Quiz,” I was very disappointed. Not only did I earn a 6/10 on the quiz, but I noticed a relatively low score of 7/10 for the state of California. Considering my performance in school and love for American history, I was embarrassed. I truly believe that this is a legitimate reflection on society’s horrible job of teaching the youth about the government in which they are under. Up until this point in the educational system, we students have not been exposed to the study of our own government or that of any other governmental system. Our knowledge dwindles past the obvious three branches of the U.S. government. Compared to other countries, we are far behind. I traveled to Japan this summer

Amelia Arcamone-Makinano brings this issue to light in her extremely informative book “KRONOS: All-Devouring Federal Reserve”, where she speculates how this very problem has occurred for nearly 50 years in the United States. She juxtaposes many instances of great leadership and strong educational reforms throughout moments in history, cementing her belief that the literacy of citizens can be considerably beneficial to a country’s success. Arcamone-Makinano utilizes a structure of example followed by analysis to further her arguments of the present-day crisis of education, while citing the main source of constant problems coming from the Federal Reserve Board, whose hold on the education system has been depleting the strength of the American education system. Though a sign of a good leader are the inclination to gain knowledge, the United States is losing its desire to gain knowledge, which is resulting in an increase in illiteracy and a problem that will many future generations to

Through course readings, lectures, class examples and so forth, we have identified multiple flaws in some of our oldest documents, which have served as the foundation of the United States of America. Throughout history we’ve witnessed events, presidential terms, and cultural and demographical evidence that show how the Pillars of Citizenship have not successfully worked toward executing the achievement of important milestones amongst nationalization, globalization and equality up to this very day.

America. Are we born with knowledge of the Constitution? Has our sense of this land shaped our culture and formed our laws? If we pledge allegiance to it, must it also stand for “We the people?” Have we made America and the Constitution synonymous, compatible. One. There is a need to know the Constitution for oneself that is right, wise, and beneficial. And yet there has been a revelation. Living in ignorance of the Constitution is a life of illusions and deception. And the elect pose no action to rise above this. The illusion will sweep through this nation for people embrace the mere appearance of what it means to be an American. But promise and truth remain within the Constitution because it's inspired and useful. It has revealed what was

In this day and age it seems unfathomable that there are so many people that cannot pick up a cereal box and read its contents, or read the operating manual of a toaster oven. Why is it that so many Americans cannot fill out a simple employment application or write a check? Where is the reasonable judgment in electing a President or passing a proposition? Why is it that in a country like America, with free education, are there still many people unable to read, write, or think critically? There may be a slew of reasons for this epidemic of uneducated Americans across this nation based on both facts and opinion. In my opinion, a few contributing factors may be poverty, financial deficit within communities, and government and political contribution.