Katerina Tsatsoulis

76100o Argument

Professor Sauer

05/02/97

Literacy can quite possibly be the most important part of a young child's development. For most children, it would be common to think that literacy is taught from a very young age and continued throughout the child's schooling as well as in the home. Children become enthusiastic at a chance to listen to a new tale and to soon read the tale on their own. Upon entering the school system, children are taught the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Next to finger painting, coloring within the lines, and learning the colors of the rainbow, quite commonly the first thing a child may learn is how to properly write their full name. Unfortunately this is only one of the very few things some teenagers know how to write as they continue through and sometimes beyond the school system, because they are not appropriately taught and therefore not acquiring the knowledge needed to succeed. As one of the first things children learn in school, why is this such a problem? Do the students give up on learning, or do the teachers give up on teaching? There are many arguments of what is to blame, whether it be the school system, the parents, peer pressure, or the students themselves. There are many factors outlining the low literacy rates among today's youth. Illiteracy continues to be a problem among teenagers today of all ethnic backgrounds and economic environments. Is the problem among the students or is it reflected from their backgrounds? Students are unable to learn when not taught in manners relating to their own cultures. This leads to the low levels of literacy. The basic knowledge acquired is not nearly enough to succeed.

The problem in effect begins with improper literacy within the educational environment of the student. Although the problem is not "confined to school drop-outs and the disadvantaged members of minority groups, although they account for the greatest number of illiterates", more members of working class America are found to have high rates of illiteracy as well. (David Harmon, 1) An important factor of these high levels of illiteracy is that students are not taught properly in their educational environments. Within the school system, primarily the public school system, education is failing to give today's youth the knowledge they need to achieve the goals they seek to reach later in life. Even so, the goals are not high set, because the goals they are trying to reach reflect what the students have learned up to that point in life and not what they should have learned. To achieve this level of higher education, teens need to be encouraged to want to learn and to set higher goals that they will one day reach. To accomplish this, the teaching methods and disciplines within the schools need to be altered to suit all students and their needs, no matter what their background. One author, John U. Ogbu, represents the argument that minorities, especially black Americans, have a problem with literacy because the dominant culture holds them back. If the students were properly taught from a young age, then the other problems such as drop-out rates and economic problems would not be so high. Not only are the students inappropriately taught, but there arises the issue of peer influence. Teenagers look to each other to learn and this is how some of the problems arise. Teenagers are growing and learning, and through their development, students look towards each other to acquire what is considered "acceptable" by their peers. Many times this may lead to inaccurate discernment. Teenagers purposefully acquire knowledge that is unmistakably wrong, and continue to apply it in everyday situations. In the video Yeah You Right by Louis Alvarez, we se young people in New Orleans also influenced by their cultures in language and literacy. One girl, capable of speaking properly, admits to lowering her literacy to "fit in" with her friends. The girl admits to doing so, as not to be ridiculed for having proper speech by her peers. (Alvarez) By this example we see that many youth today are greatly persuaded by their peers. The girl although properly taught, knows she is speaking in slang, yet still does so because her culture has shaped her to do so. Not only is there a problem with the students who are in school and attempting to learn, but with those who may have dropped-out of the school system altogether. The drop-out rate is a problem; students are leaving the school system with no hope and no goals as to what they will achieve as adults. There is no doubt that the youth with less schooling or improper schooling, students will not acquire acceptable levels of literacy. For example, thirty states have declared that graduates of the twelfth-grade must be able to exhibit reading capabilities of at least eighth-grade level. (Harmon, 41) This not only clearly exhibits possible illiteracy, but can encourage illiteracy. If students are required to know what is taught up and through the eighth-grade level, then the high school years are somewhat irrelevant. Some youth may even view high-school as a waste of time. Graduates are receiving diplomas based on eighth-grade material, and are functionally illiterate. Graduates in effect cannot read at appreciable levels, and their inability is not always significantly corrected when they receive additional formal education. (Harmon, 41)

Another root problem appears to be the economic status of students. People with better economic situations tend to have higher literacy as opposed to those of lower economic status. Ogbu states that the cause of schooling and literacy problems subsist because of low economic expectations. This theory would tend to disagree with others in that the future outlook of economic status does not look good to the teenagers, and their performance reflects this future outlook. Economic instability has such a great effect on the results of literacy of teenagers. Upon entry into the labor force, high school graduates , or drop-outs, are most likely to be hired into jobs that reflect their schooling. These jobs will be hands-on skill oriented and not reading-skill oriented for those of lower literacy levels. Although non-completion of high school or inadequate completion is only one aspect of illiteracy, economic instability is also a very large factor. Illiteracy is neither the cause nor the effect of such conditions, but these economic conditions may be a cause of illiteracy. "Illiteracy is almost always part of an intertwined web of circumstances." (Harmon, 42)

The argument that illiteracy begins with the school system may be true, but it does not happen alone. Schools exist together with the students environment. In this symbiotic relationship arise the questions between the school sand society: "How can schools instill the work ethic in a community where there is no work? How can schools inculcate literacy and promote reading in a community where nobody reads?" (Harmon, 48) The school system may very well be giving up on cases they believe to be hopeless. An important question is if the schools can change what is taught in the homes and in the communities and should they even try to accomplish to break the cycle of illiteracy. Non-literate families often come from non-literate communities where literacy is not considered a bad thing, but is not considered a tool that is useful in everyday society. (Harmon, 49)

Literacy has become everything, expanding on every part of our lives. Professor Patricia A. Graham describes literacy thus: Literacy enhances our humanity. If we are literate in later twentieth century America, we expand the ways in which we can learn, understand, and appreciate the world around us. Through literacy we enlarge the range of our vicarious experience. Both through our command of written materials and through formulation of new ideas demanded by the rigors of writing and speaking...To learn, to express, to decide and to do...together permit us to become more autonomous individuals, less circumscribed by the conditions of social class, sex, and ethnicity into which we are born.

Professor Graham describes the need for literacy well, but it very well may be right to say that many people in America do not even have the chance to experience this 'enlightenment' of literacy. Levels of literacy decide what a person will become and achieve. Harvard Professor Graham has the right idea, but how will the people reach their own freedom of literacy? The school system needs to not give up on the cases that it perceives to be hopeless. There is a drive inside of everyone to always do more and to do better. With a little extra help or encouragement from inside the schools, students may be more willing to learn and go on to higher levels of learning. Without this encouragement, children lose interest and end up not doing as well as they could have, did they have the extra little push. Illiteracy is and will continue to be a major problem if something is not done to correct this problem at the institutions where illiteracy is the greatest. Even though it is true that, "hundreds of millions of dollars are spent annually on the teaching of reading, on research, on the production of textbooks, and on the training of teachers-and the problem persists," teenagers need to be urged to apply their knowledge to these tools. (Harmon, 1) Youth want to learn and be successful, someone just have to give them the chance to do it.