Functional illiteracy

Adult literacy lies at the heart of many social crises in the United States, including crime, unemployment, and poverty. According to the Pro Literacy Organization, it has been estimated that as many as fourteen percent of  US adults over the age of sixteen read at or below a fifth grade level. Among those segments of the US population with lower literacy rates, almost half live in poverty. Over ninety million American adults, are illiterate, which means they do not possess the skills required to

Introduction Over 14% of the United States population is classified as illiterate, ranging from total illiteracy to functional illiteracy (United States Department of Education, 2013). Total illiteracy refers to the inability to effectively function in society by failure to use reading, writing, and calculation (United Nations, 2012) whereas functional illiteracy is defined as the ability to read between a fourth-grade and sixth-grade level, to use printed and written information to function in

various textbooks in order to gain new knowledge about their selected major. Many adults and children around the world cannot read one sentence, much less pages and pages of comprehensive subject matter. The inability to read and write, known as illiteracy, is a common problem around the world, especially in developing countries, and has many unfortunate consequences. Literacy plays a major role in the world, impacting various aspects of society, politics, and the world economy, not to mention individual

illiterate, 21 percent read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates are functionally illiterate. Functional illiteracy is the inability to manage daily living and tasks that requires reading skills beyond the basic level. A person who is functionally illiterate will affect their life and provide them with less career opportunities. As a result, illiteracy affects the larger population as a whole. It correlates with underemployment, poverty, crime, and substandard health and

advanced technology came out the only viable way to teach writing and reading to adults was in classrooms. Today there are more tools available that can enhance an adult’s ability to learn to read and write. The parts of the world that have the highest illiteracy are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa places with little advanced technology making it harder to use it for learning.

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

Foundation released a report on illiteracy in 2012 sharing this devastating news, “Shockingly, more than 796 million people in the world cannot read or write. About 67 million children do not have access to a primary school education and another 72 million miss out on secondary school education” (Melbourne, “The Economic & Social Cost of Illiteracy”). Complete illiteracy is defined as, “a person who cannot read or write at all” (Melbourne, “The Economic & Social Cost of Illiteracy”). However, there is another

Volunteers are recruited, trained and supported to provide one-on-one or small group tutoring to adult students. Recognizing that illiteracy is a family issue, our Book Buddies and Classroom Book Buddies programs recruits volunteers to read one-to-one once a week with a child who is struggling with reading in the 2-4 grades. Our goal is to prevent adult illiteracy by helping children achieve grade-level or better reading skills at the critical time when children are transitioning from learning

“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

and consider that nearly half of Chicago’s population cannot read proficiently. Although some people are completely illiterate, meaning that they completely lack the ability to both read and write, most are simply functionally illiterate. Functional illiteracy as stated by Daniel Lattier is defined by the UNESCO and he sums it up as the following, “The UNESCO definition implies that a functionally literate person possesses a literacy level that equips him or her to flourish in society. A functionally