Illiteracy

2 Pages 619 Words

The Problems of Illiteracy
Illiteracy affects about forty-two million adults in the United States. Jonathan Kozol was so concerned over this matter that he wrote a book published in 1985 entitled, Illiterate America. In his book, he claims that people in power support illiteracy because it keeps them in power. He supports his claim by stating that nothing is done to educate illiterate people. It is true that there are few public programs that seek out and attempt to teach the illiterate to read. Many illiterate people, as Kozol points out, rely heavily on what others tell them. They put all of their faith into people that deceive and lie to them. However, there is little that responsible, caring, average citizens can do to help illiterate people with their struggles.
There is no evidence that people in power are deliberately keeping the illiterate the way they are. Of course, it may seem that way. There are no social programs that are government sponsored providing free education to illiterate adults, and the issue of illiteracy is not a regular topic of discussion around election time. But Kozol never gives any clear answer as to what benefits people in power do reap by keeping illiterate people illiterate. Powerful people cannot benefit from the fact that illiterate people buy the wrong item sometimes, which is the topic of a lengthy paragraph in his essay. Kozol claims that “[i]f even one third of all illiterates could vote, and read enough and do sufficient math to vote in their self-interest, Ronald Reagan would not likely have been chosen president” (115). There is no way to predict what may have happened. There is also no premeditated policy of Congress to refuse any proposal of an education program. Responsibility does not lie with citizens in a democratic society to educate the illiterate. It is not the duty of an American to seek out illiterate people. In a perfect society, people would take action; and...