The Effects of lliteracy

Many people who are illiterate find it embarrassing and don’t want anyone to find out about it. They find ways to get around in the world without facing the fact that they can’t read. Some ways include being disorderly in the classroom, pretending to be near or far sighted, or just by avoiding having to read all together. Like a man by the name of Jesse Mezo who kept his secret of illiteracy for 50 years. He avoided jobs where he would have to fill out paperwork. In an article entitled “A well-kept secret: After more than 50 years of hiding illiteracy, former Maytag employee learns to read”[2] Mezo states how he felt about being illiterate "It holds you back. I feel like I was left out of a lot of stuff. You feel down about yourself, like you're not as good as you should be. I can understand why kids join gangs. They want to feel a part of something and it doesn't even matter what it is, just a part of something where they belong," he said. Another man by the name of Chad Boynton suffered from illiteracy. He was featured in an article entitled “Kids can be brilliant at hiding illiteracy[3]”. In this article he stated “I Kind of like, disappeared. Went to the corner, I always kept my head down when we had to read… It put me in like a cocoon, until I started to realize that I had to get out of it. I had to break the little shield that I had made for myself and go out there”. As we learn, illiteracy not only can be devastating to a child’s education but can do just as much damage to their moral and feeling of self worth.

According to the NAAL 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, and more than 60 percent of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate¹. Obviously illiteracy and crime are intertwined somehow. When a child fails in the class room they will resort to other things that they are better at or as Mezo says “a place where they belong”. These outside influences could be positive, but in all honestly most of them are negative influences that lead to crime, delinquency and violence. Recent studies have found that crime is nearly doubled in the population of illiteracy. If we reduce the number of people who are illiterate, we reduce the rate of crime.

Illiteracy can also put those who suffer at risk. Something as simple as reading a medicine label can be a giant obstacle to those who cannot read. According to “‘Illiteracy’ Revisited: What Ortega and Rodríguez Read in the Household Survey”, “the adult literacy rate in the United States is reported as 99 percent, and yet 20 percent of those same adults cannot read the simplest instructions off a medicine label.”[4] This is not only dangerous for the person but for their children as well. If a medicine label is read incorrectly that could lead to damaging consequences. In an article entitled “Ninety percent of Afghan army illiterate”[5], an Afghan soldier named Shahidullah Ahmadi explains the difficulties he finds with being illiterate “I face difficulties. If someone calls me and tells me to go somewhere, I can't read the street signs,". Not only would this be a problem for a soldier, but anyone who is illiterate. There are so many things that give us warning, directions, and information that need to be read. How can anyone make it in the world normally without being able to read?

Illiteracy is a problem that needs to be faced in the world today. So many people are suffering from what can be taken care of so simply if someone would just take the time to help. Illiteracy is damaging to not only the person it effects but to the world in general. Although it doesn’t seem like a major ordeal, its what starts the chain of a long unhappy and difficult life.

[1] http://www.begintoread.com/research/literacystatistics.html
[2] http://www.thesouthern.com/news/article_b6efe7f8-b0bc-5575-abaf-219d76451c54.html
[3] http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources&id=4865406
[4] http://www.scribd.com/doc/3034117/Illiteracy-Revisited-What-Ortega-and-Rodriguez-Read-in-the-Household-Survey
[5] http://www.dailymail.com/News/200909140319

Written by: Drew Thomas