It's Time to Further Reduce Illiteracy
by John
W. Corcoran
San Diego Union-Tribune - December 3, 1998
When I was a
schoolboy, my mother would awaken me and my five sisters by gently
wiggling our feet and saying in a soft voice, "It's time." She repeated this gentle effort two or three times until we got
out of our slumber and our beds.
For over a decade, Barbara Bush, the "First Lady of Literacy,"
has been gently wiggling America's collective feet and gently saying,
"It's time." It's time to understand that, in our society,
reading is essential to our individual and collective success. And
it is essential to find ways to prevent and eradicate illiteracy
in America. Teaching children and adults of all ages to read is
an investment in America's future.
What is "literacy?" What is "illiteracy?" The
National Literacy Act of 1991 defines literacy as, "an individual's
ability to read, write and speak in English and compute and solve
problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job
and in society to achieve one's goals and develop one's knowledge
and potential."
The Canadian organization for Development through Education defines
literacy as, "an ability to read and write; progress, self-sufficiency,
hope, and the shortest distance to individual social and economic development." It is important to understand that literacy does not just mean reading
and writing.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines illiterate as, "not being able to read, uneducated." The use of the term illiterate,
or referring to someone who can't read as an illiterate is politically
incorrect today, perhaps because each June we graduate a million
young adults from our high schools who can't read.
They are in fact "educated," but can't read or write.
However, the following speech by U.S. Senator John Kerry, D-Mass.,
given at Northeastern University in June was striking for its observations,
analyses and conclusions. You may even find this tiny excerpt -
or the whole speech - may help you to influence someone you know:
"For the second time in our nation's history, we must entirely
restructure public education, and for the first time, we must rethink
the way in which we use our school buildings themselves. This is
the last week of the school year in America, when principals across
the country will hand diplomas to a student population where fully
one-third of the recipients are below-average readers; one-third
read at basic levels, and only one-third are proficient."
What is the measurement of that diploma when 29 percent of all college
freshmen require remedial classes in basic skills? Despite the
obvious measure of the challenge, for the most part, we are now
only tinkering at the edges carefully circumscribed by political
timidity and power groups."
Today, it is very difficult to define illiteracy. It is not enough
to use words. Illiteracy in America is a disabling experience rather
than a definition. And there is only one cure for America's illiteracy
epidemic: literacy. We are making progress, considering that this
is a democratic society and theoretically, our democratic system
encourages - and to some extent, demands - a debate. We have more
adult illiterates in America today than we had 10 years ago; however,
I still remain hopeful. Illiteracy is one of America's social, economic
and educational issues that can be solved in the next 20 years.
I have been challenging teachers since I first walked into a classroom
at the age of 6. I was one of millions of children and adults who
had difficulty learning how to read, write and spell. I am also
proof that with proper instruction, we can all learn to read. For
over 35 years, I functioned as a non-reader, a non-reading student,
and a non-reading California public school teacher.
I overcame my lifelong illiteracy at the age of 48. A volunteer
tutor served as the second-grade teacher I never had; one-to-one
teaching against the backdrop of a local library adult-literacy
program. My initial literacy skills are the product of a grass-roots
volunteer literacy program. As a graduate of a volunteer program,
I have become an advocate for volunteerism, and the grass-roots
literacy providers are some of my best supporters and allies.
I ultimately received additional instruction at a private reading
clinic that held the master key to my specific learning difficulties.
Over the past 10 years, American taxpayers have invested $170 million
in empirical research by the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development (NICHD) that validates my personal success with Pat
Lindamood at her reading clinic.
The NICHD has conducted long-term prospective, longitudinal and
multidisciplinary research. This research program has produced a
growing body of highly replicable findings in the areas of early
reading acquisition and reading disabilities that have been reported
in over 2,000 refereed journal articles.
The bottom line in teaching children or adults like me to read is
proper instruction. If we continue to avoid the truth, and if we
lack courage to face up to it, we will continue to perpetuate our
failure. We did not prepare. We did not teach our teachers how to
teach reading. We did not teach our children how to read, write
and spell. That is why we have our current illiteracy epidemic.
Let's put this knowledge and skill into the hands of the literacy
provider and the classroom teacher. It's time.
