Literacy And Your Child -- Your Child's Life Can Be Ruined If They Can't Read Well

It may seem obvious to many people why literacy is so important
in our technologically advanced society. However, many parents
may not fully realize the emotional pain and life-long damage
illiteracy can cause their children. Literacy, the ability to
read well, is the foundation of children's education.

If children can't read well, every subject they try to learn
will frustrate them. If they can't read math, history, or
science textbooks, if they stumble over the words, they will
soon give up reading out of frustration. Asking children who
are poor readers to study these subjects is like asking them to
climb a rope with one arm.

Kids learn to read in their most formative years, which is why
reading can profoundly affect their self-esteem. When children
learn to read, they also start learning how to think
abstractly, because words convey ideas and relationships
between ideas. How well they read therefore affects children's
feelings about their ability to learn. This in turn affects how
kids feel about themselves generally whether a child thinks he
or she is stupid or bright. Children who struggle with reading
often blame themselves and feel ashamed of themselves.

As Donald L. Nathanson, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
and Human Behavior at Jefferson Medical College noted: "First
reading itself, and then the whole education process, becomes
so imbued with, stuffed with, amplified, magnified by shame
that children can develop an aversion to everything that is
education."

Often, poor readers will struggle just to graduate from high
school. They can lose general confidence in themselves, and
therefore the confidence to try for college or pursue a career.
Their job opportunities can dry up. Their poor reading skills
and low self-confidence can strangle their ability to earn
money. They can struggle financially their whole lives. If they
marry and have children, they can struggle even more.

Life for illiterate adults can easily degenerate into misery,
poverty, failure, and hopelessness. According to a 1992 study
by the National Institute for Literacy, "43 % of Americans with
the lowest literacy skills live in poverty and 70 % have no job
or a part-time job. Only 5% of Americans with strong literacy
skills live in poverty."

As Dr. Grover Whitehurst, Assistant Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Education, said, "Reading is absolutely
fundamental. It's almost trite to say that. But in our society,
the inability to be fluent consigns children to failure in
school and consigns adults to the lowest strata of job and life
opportunities."

By the 1850s, before we had compulsory, government-controlled
public schools, child and adult literacy rates averaged over 90
percent, making illiteracy rates less than 10 percent. By 1850,
literacy rates in Massachusetts and other New England States,
for both men and women, was close to 97 percent. This was
before Massachusetts created the first compulsory public-school
system in America in 1852. What is literacy like in our public
schools today?

In 1995, a student teacher for a fifth-grade class in
Minneapolis wrote the following letter to the local newspaper:
". . . I was told [that] children are not to be expected to
spell the following words correctly: back, big, call, came,
can, day, did, dog, down, get, good, if, in, is, it, have, he,
home, like, little, man, morning, mother, my, night, off, out,
over, people, play, ran, said, saw, she, some, soon, their,
them, there, time, two, too, up, us, very, water, we, went,
where, when, will, would, etc. Is this nuts?"

In 2002, the New York State Education Department's annual
report on the latest reading and math scores for public school
students found:

. 90 percent of middle schools failed to meet New York State
minimum standards for math and English exam scores.

. 65 percent of elementary schools flunked the minimum
standards.

. 84 percent of high schools failed to meet the minimum state
standards.

. More than half of New York City's black and hispanic
elementary school students failed the state's English and math
exams. About 30 percent of white and asian-american students
failed to achieve the minimum English test scores.

. The results for eighth grade students were even worse. Here,
75 percent of black and hispanic students flunked both the
English and the math tests. About 50 percent of white and
Asian-American eighth graders failed the tests. These
illiteracy rates are now common in public schools across
America, not just in New York City.

In short,as shown by the New York State Education Department's
annual report and other studies, student illiteracy rates in
many public schools range from 30 to 75 percent. This is an
education horror story.

That is what illiteracy can mean, what it does mean for
millions of public-school children who can barely read. Does
any parent want this kind of future for his or her children? I
argue in my book, "Public Schools, Public Menace" that our
public school system is the primary cause of this tragic
illiteracy, and one reason why these schools are a menace to
our children.

A great movie to see that shows the tragic consequences of
illiteracy is "Stanley and Iris" with Robert DeNiro and Jane
Fonda. After you see this movie, you might think twice about
keeping your children in public schools.


About The Author: Joel Turtel is an education policy analyst,
and author of "Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public
Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children."Contact
Information:Website: www.mykidsdeservebetter.com, Email:
lbooksusa@aol.com, Phone: 718-447-7348. Article Copyrighted ©
2005 by Joel Turtel. NOTE: You may post this Article on an
Ezine, newsletter, or other website only if you include Joel
Turtel's complete contact information, and set up a hyperlink
to Joel Turtel's email address and website URL,
www.mykidsdeservebetter.com.