{"id":12183,"date":"2016-02-22T08:28:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T14:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=12183"},"modified":"2016-02-22T08:28:39","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T14:28:39","slug":"the-need-to-read-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/22\/the-need-to-read-better\/","title":{"rendered":"The Need to Read Better"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know this article is a bit “off-topic” for this blog, but as a writer, reader and parent, the stats in the article floored me! Let’s all do our part to promote literacy in the HOME and not TRUST the public school system to do it for us. -SF<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"king_literacy_program_sesame_str_259895\"<\/p>\n

In 1930, 3 million American adults could not read.\u00a0 Most of those 1 million white illiterates and 2 million black illiterates were people over age fifty who had never been to school. (Regna Lee Wood)<\/p>\n

In 2003, 30 million American adults could not read. \u00a0Most had been to school for many years.\u00a0 (70% of prison inmates could not read; 19% of high school graduates could not read) (Illiteracy Statistics<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In 2003, The U.S. Department of Education\u2019s National Institute of Literacy completed aNational Assessment of Adult Literacy <\/em>(NAAL<\/a>) and concluded:<\/p>\n

NUMBER OF ADULTS IN EACH PROSE LITERACY LEVEL<\/p>\n

Below Basic<\/strong>: 30 million adults (14% of population)<\/p>\n

no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills<\/p>\n

Basic<\/strong>: 63 million adults (29% of population)<\/p>\n

can perform simple and everyday literacy activities<\/p>\n

Intermediate<\/strong>: 95 million adults (44% of population)<\/p>\n

can perform moderately challenging literacy activities<\/p>\n

Proficient<\/strong>: 28 million adults (13% of population)<\/p>\n

can perform complex and challenging literacy activities<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

It can safely be assumed that during the twelve (12) years since this shocking news was released, little has been done to slow the rate of decline in literacy levels, and next-to-nothing has been done to decrease the numbers of illiterates and functional illiterates. The cost of this ever-growing national disaster is heartbreakingly high, both for the compromised individuals and for the nation as a whole. \u00a0NAAL\u2019s definition of literacy: \u201cThe ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one\u2019s goals, and to develop one\u2019s knowledge and potential.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 The noninstitutional population of adults and teens aged 16 and over (not seasonally adjusted) not in the workforce during January of 2016, was 95,051,000<\/a>.\u00a0 One cannot help but wonder about a correlation between the 2016 unemployment figures and those 93,000,000 illiterates and functional illiterates counted by NAAL in 2003.<\/p>\n

In January of 2015, Dr. Sandra Stotsky said<\/a> that most US college freshmen read at 6-7 grade levels. The assigned reading selections in today\u2019s public schools are written at such low reading levels that the students using those materials fail to develop the vocabulary base, reading fluency, and content reading experiences necessary to prepare them for college\/university complex reading and thought processes.\u00a0 I observed the same problems when I taught freshmen reading and English classes at a state university in Michigan.\u00a0 The vast majority of my students read at a fifth-grade level when tested with reading materials written in the 1920s.\u00a0 The students were quite offended when informed of their actual reading levels.\u00a0 As they were provided with additional materials to read, they had to admit that, indeed, they could not read classic academic fare.\u00a0 They then became angry at their high school teachers for not expecting more of them.\u00a0 These students could not write about their readings, either.\u00a0 One Detroit student explained how he became an \u201cA\u201d composition student: \u201cAlmost no one turned in homework so just by writing something, anything<\/em>, and turning it in, I was an A student.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such students, when faced with traditional academic standards and teacher expectations, flounder, drop out, fail to perform at their potential, waste tuition money and time, further compromising their lives and their value to America.\u00a0 If our best and brightest are costing America so dearly, consider the great numbers of compromised readers enrolled in remedial classes in middle and high schools; in community colleges, colleges, and even in universities.\u00a0 Consider the expenses for those of all ages receiving remedial help in classes for English as a second language.\u00a0 Count up the hundreds of millions of dollars spent supporting those who, because they cannot read so cannot or will not support themselves, depend on taxpayer dollars for housing, food, utilities, health care, as well as for child rearing costs for their offspring.<\/p>\n

With great discouragement, consider the public and personal costs for those sitting in reform schools, jails, and prisons where inmates receive little academic remediation and cannot look for jobs or report to work; and think of the tens of millions of people who work in jobs far beneath their intellectual levels, earning incomes far beneath their value, all because of their inferior reading abilities.<\/p>\n

If a count were to be made of all individuals whose lives are less valued and less valuable because their schools failed to teach them to read by using the correct method for a phonetic language, the total would probably reach 90% or more of the American population. \u00a0As Don Potter<\/a> recently reminded people, \u201cEven if every school in America started teaching the alphabet code today and every child was taught to read well with phonics, that would not solve the massive problem of teen and adult illiteracy that we have on our hands now.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

I had no choice but to write a book to help adults and teens improve their reading levels\u2026and thus their lives\u2026because few educators will admit to the breadth of the problem, and fewer still have any idea how to go about solving it.<\/p>\n

Americans became a highly literate people beginning in Colonial times because the ability to read the Bible was encouraged and expected at all ages, five and above.\u00a0 Schooling was valued so a book like Noah Webster\u2019s \u201cBlue-Backed Speller\u201d became a best seller found in nearly every home.\u00a0 Historically, for 3,500 years, countries with languages with alphabets<\/em><\/strong> have successfully taught their citizens to read by using sound-to-letter correspondence, i.e. phonics<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 But in 1929-30, John Dewey began training America\u2019s elementary teachers to teach reading by the memorization of sight words.\u00a0 The abject failure of American schools to teach children to read began then and continues unabated to this day, even in the face of that appalling 2003 finding of 93,000,000 functional illiterates age 16 and over!\u00a0 THAT alone should have slapped both shame and sense into educators at all levels, from first-grade teachers through university teacher training professors, all across the nation.\u00a0 But it did not.\u00a0 How telling; how utterly shameful that they all were able to disregard the findings; to never look at themselves in any mirrors; and to continue doing what they have been doing since Dewey set them on the oh, so, erroneous path.<\/p>\n

Dewey had observed deaf children being taught to read by memorizing sight words on flash cards.\u00a0 Dewey erroneously inferred that if deaf children could learn to read using such a method, one could only imagine how well it would work for hearing children!\u00a0 \u201cOne could only imagine\u201d<\/em> was exactly right because neither deaf nor hearing children learn to read using sight word memorization.\u00a0 Deaf students, including my own brother, dependent upon flash card instruction, usually graduate from high school with, at best, a 3rd-grade reading level.\u00a0 American prisons are filled with individuals who read at or below a 3rd-grade level, 70% of whom do not read at all.\u00a0 In all probability, most individuals dependent on welfare read below a 3rd-grade level, if at all. My mother always maintained that\u00a0\u201cIn today\u2019s schools, the only children who learn to read well do so in spite of <\/em><\/strong>the curriculum and the instruction,not because of it<\/em><\/strong>!\u201d\u00a0 She was so right.<\/p>\n

Thomas Jefferson said, \u201cEducate and inform the whole mass of the people\u2026They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0I look about and see America on the downslide with our liberties being the first things to go over the proverbial cliff.\u00a0 Wise advice abounds but if only 13% of our voting-age citizens can read, evaluate, and act upon complex explanations and suggestions, it is no wonder that we are losing both our liberties and our country.<\/p>\n

Both adults and teenagers need an easy, manageable way to improve their reading skills so they not only improve their own lives\u00a0but also save our liberties in America and thus improve the lives us all.<\/p>\n

With that goal foremost; with remedial instruction as my knowledge base; with my career spent teaching and tutoring teens and adults in schools, universities, even in jail, I set about planning a book of methodical, short, essential, incremental lessons that my target populations could handle alone or with the help of a friend, relative or tutor.\u00a0 The lessons first teach, then give practice in the use of those small parts of the \u201ccode\u201d in which English is written down into print.\u00a0 Our teachers forget to explain that English has been written down in a Code, and our teachers also forget to tell us that in order to read English, we must first be taught to understand and use the different pieces of the Code. \u00a0Instead, we are left to guess!\u00a0 We do pretty well when we only have to guess that an \u2018f\u2019 is used to represent the \/f\/ sound.\u00a0 But, oh, how we need someone to explain that the spelling \u2018wr\u2019 \u201cis only used at the beginning of words which convey the concept of twisting\u201d!\u00a0 I have a master\u2019s degree in English and I never guessed that clue!\u00a0 Actually, I never even thought about the \u2018wr\u2019 situation until Dr. Joseph Stomberg taught it to me about ten years ago.\u00a0 (That was after I had been teaching for about 35 years, unfortunately.)<\/p>\n

But we need not dwell on what we do not know.\u00a0 Just understand that the schools let us all down, then use my book to learn the aspects of English that you never learned.\u00a0 Your reading skills will be all the better for the new knowledge and the practice stories included in the book will improve reading speed and mental agility. \u00a0A life improves when a person can read better!<\/p>\n

Read the Original Article at Lew Rockwell<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know this article is a bit “off-topic” for this blog, but as a writer, reader and parent, the stats in the article floored me! Let’s all do our part to promote literacy in the HOME and not TRUST the public school system to do it for us. -SF In 1930, 3 million American adults…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[74],"tags":[4463,4773,4774,4775],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}