Portfolio: Final Exam Frame 1

Frame 1


America, arguably the strongest and most dominant power in the world, is fighting an uphill battle. This battle is not against some foreign power, or physical threat. This battle is against illiteracy. In this day and age, illiteracy is a problem most people don’t even realize is a severe as it is. However a large number of our population suffers with this problem. Illiteracy is a problem we have the ability and resources to fix, if more people would realize how real this problem is.


Geoffrey Meredith is one of those people. Meredith puts this problem in real perspective. One fifth of the American population is functionally illiterate. The level of illiteracy can vary within this group. From being so severe, that the seemingly simple everyday tasks become impossible, to problems with comprehension of more intense materials. These people who are still able to function in today’s society are still fighting an uphill battle against the advances in the world and technology. Meredith puts it best when she states that in today’s world, reading has become a survival skill.


Meredith also understands how strange this may seem to those who aren’t aware that this is such a problem. The assumption that our technology and advancements in this day in age have wiped out illiteracy is widespread, but completely false. Everywhere you look today you are surrounded by words. On television, billboards, newspapers, books, restaurants, stores, gas stations, almost everywhere there is print that is meant to be read. This would make most people think that we are a completely literate society, yet for almost 20 percent of us that is not the truth. There are probably people you know in your own lives who are illiterate, and you don’t have a clue.


I, in my own life I have experienced this problem. In my freshman year of high school I had a teacher that was very distraught that her son had just graduated high school in the same district she taught in, but his reading abilities were that of a first grader. He was turned down by every college he applied to, even though he had somehow managed to keep good grades. A friend I had in middle school through high school was illiterate the whole time I knew him and I had no idea. We all thought he was just being a stubborn rebel when he would refuse to read anything aloud in class, but the truth was he couldn’t. Who knows how many others there were in my high school. Maybe the ones sitting in the back weren’t just shy, but had a much more severe problem. That is why I believe that illiteracy needs to be addressed.


Illiteracy is a problem that must be stopped. The current ways things are don’t work. The no child left behind act has had little to an even adverse effect on our youth. Those who are having the most problems seem to be the ones receiving the least amount of help. With the state the public school system is in right now, we could see the illiteracy rates raise even higher in the coming years. As technology and the world around us advance more and more of our population will be left behind. We may already have the power to educate a huge portion of this demographic, and we are not using those resources.


One of those resources is our government. They have the power to make changes. Candidate after candidate in this last election built their platforms around environmental issues and foreign policy, when quite possibly our biggest threat stays unaddressed. The no child left behind act had the right idea. Its execution was not so on target. By taking some of the money away from other failing government projects, to properly fund public schools we could make a huge impact on this problem. There are fundraisers and organizations for everything you could possibly think of, but not nearly enough of them focus on illiteracy.


Illiteracy is a real problem in America. Its numbers have risen dramatically. We as a country have the power to fix this problem, yet we do nothing about it. Illiteracy could cripple us as a country. It is an underlying problem that needs to be brought to the front of the line. While one fifth of our people continue to struggle our government funnels money into corrupt Wall Street banks that refuse to quit their frivolous spending, and weapons contracts that will only cause more destruction. Fixing this problem would not result in wars, or economic crisis, yet we continue to ignore it. More people need to realize that this is a real problem like Geoffrey Meredith. It is only when people acknowledge the problem that we can fix it.