The Uneducated American

Children who come from a lower social economic background are more likely to be in poverty themselves. This can lead to lower expectations of the child from both parents and also the education system, leaving them little or no hope of getting out of poverty even though they may have the ability to do so.

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.

Poverty has always been with us from beggars outside the gates of Jerusalem to the mentally ill homeless woman in the park. America is known for our huge difference in culture and class. This is due partly to the dynamics behind the political decisions of this country. The president himself admits that America is more unequal than it’s been since the great depression and many of his own supporters say he has failed. America now has, by many standards, the lowest social mobility of all of the high-end countries, meaning that a child born into poverty is likely to grow up as a poor adult. This is surprising for a country that not only prides itself as being a middle class society, but as the society where anyone can make it and where

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

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.

More than most would imagine, illiteracy is a phenomenal crisis throughout the world. Today, there are approximately 800 million illiterates in the world. Ninety-three million of those are Americans who have basic or below basic literacy. Thirty million of the 93,000,000 are functionally illiterate. The other 63,000,000 read at a fifth to an eighth grade level and cannot understand a basic newspaper. According to Literacy Partners, a foundation which helps low-income parents with limited English proficiency transfer literacy

Advanced technology and forms of communication have changed the way we look at our nation. The current political climate and the cultural movement that is happening in our nation is going to go down in history as a revolution. A revolution where news headlines are instantaneously on our phone screens, and thanks to our advanced technology, a whole world of information is a few clicks away. However, despite these advancements in technology, the cultural change in America is often slowed down because there is a general lack of education. In America, education is the one, if not the biggest barriers that economically and institutionally suppress an overwhelming amount of the nation’s adults. Majority of adults in America do not have basic reading and writing skills yet education is still not a priority in America. There is a crucial need for education in America, now more than ever. In my opinion, the only reason for the current political climate in America is the lack of education that brings basic awareness. The solution to what we are witnessing as a nation is an education that makes individuals aware of the reality of our circumstances and allows them to see a perspective from multiple points of views. In this paper, I will present my argument on why education should be made a priority in America.

Poverty leads to insufficient opportunities, especially in college education. For instance, according to U.S. Department of Education, students who do not enter college or drop out of their classes are “predominantly persons from low-income families.” In support of this argument, the article states that “only 21 percent of those with family income of less than $25,000 were highly qualified for admission at a four-year institution” compared to the 56 percent of students with family income above $75,000. Therefore, students with bad economic conditions struggle with attending university even after entering it. The problem is that the African Americans race gets the harshest disadvantage from their poor economic conditions. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services publishes that almost 40 percent of African Americans under 18 are below the national poverty line, which is three-times higher than their white counterparts. This explicitly proves that unequal economic conditions are the main reason for inequality in education; African Americans are the most disadvantaged. Furthermore, the correlation between poor economic conditions and a lack of education among African Americans creates a chain of inequality. The poor economic backgrounds of African Americans obstruct their children from attending colleges and subsequently, the lack of higher education makes

Throughout life, we have experienced moments of helplessness that have left us feeling anguished and defeated. It’s only in these moments that we realize how crucial communication is. We are most vulnerable when we are not understood or when we are unable to comprehend a given issue or situation. Of course, for some, the feeling is short-term, but for illiterates it is a chronic sensation. The tragic inability to read or write has become a crisis in our nation as millions of illiterate Americans fall victim to their own insecurities and ignorance. Jonathan Kozol addresses these concerns in “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society”, where he warns us about the dangers of illiteracy when it coexists with democracy. The notion of an illiterate society is one that affects our nation as a whole. With the alarming rate of illiterates across the nation, the incapability to read or write may compromise our democracy. Because an illiterate society lacks the knowledge or education required, they are highly dependent on others, susceptible to danger, and risk creating ill-informed decisions that could be detrimental to democracy.

This is due to several factors. Engle and Black explain, “children growing up in poverty experience “double jeopardy.” Not only are they directly exposed to risks in their homes and communities, including illnesses, crowding and family stress, lack of psychosocial stimulation, and limited resources, but they often experience more serious consequences to risks than children from higher income families” (3). Children in poverty tend to live in low income areas which have high rates of crime and very few academic opportunities. Schools in these low income areas as well are underfunded, poorly staffed, and do not have the resources to provide a good quality education. Engle and Black note a solution that has worked, which are programs that sponsor poor families that live in low income areas, and move them to higher income areas. Children who move to higher income areas made significant progress on their academics, and became more confident in their ability to succeed. Karl Marx’s conflict theory argues that individuals of different social classes have an unequal amount of resources, and those that have more resources, the upper class, exploit those who have less (Krogen 16). Conflict theory can explain the educational and lifestyle disparity

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.

America, the most technologically advanced and affluent of all nations on the earth, seems to have an increasingly larger illiteracy rate every year. This has become and continues to be a critical problem throughout our society as we know it. According to the National Adult Literacy survey, 42 million adult Americans can't read; 50 million are limited to a 4th or 5th grade reading level; one in every four teenagers drops out of high school, and of the students who graduate, one in every four has around an 8th grade education. Why? You ask. This problem will never fix itself and will take quite a bit of time to overcome. We need to make sure that everyone is aware of the social problems, poverty and lack of family interaction that occurs

Some go as far to as to believe that poverty is mostly concentrated in what is considered the inner city or ghettos of America. In the south and the west portions of the country statistics show that rural areas have a significantly larger poor population than urban or metro poor with an almost six percent difference in the south (United States Department of Agriculture. 2015). In the northeast as well as the midwest portions of the country the divide is much less defined. Both of the latter regions have a less than one percent difference between people who live in the country facing financial hardships and those living in the city (United States Department of Agriculture. 2015). Families living in rural America have a completely different set of financial challenges than those living in the cities. Students who grow up in rural poor families have less access to medical care and rural clinics are continuing to close throughout the U.S. making it even more difficult to receive medical care. Those living in rural parts of the country who find themselves living in poverty find themselves socially separated as well as physically isolated due to cost of transportation. When laws are created that are meant to help the poor they actually end up doing the opposite for rural poor schools. An example of this would be the "No Child" laws that were created to help children and educators to meet certain standards and move through their education. What happened was rural schools who had historically used the same teacher for several subjects found themselves without many teachers because the veteran teachers now did not hold the required

Even though they are not from wealthy families, these children still want to learn and have the same drive for success just like any other child. The low income students are learning in environments of old buildings, underpaid teachers, and low funded sports teams due to their district. Yet, once they graduate high school, they still have to meet the same requirements to get into colleges, although they did not have access to high-impact education. Whereas the higher-income schools suffer nothing as they have no experience of budget cuts, and they have access to endless opportunities for their students. Their students do not have the same struggle to get into higher education as they were prepped for it in high school. This kind of financial unintentionality is hurting the children of the future