Letter From America: Illiterate America

What's worse, the standards and requirements for literacy have increased in recent years, as computerization has taken over the world. "You've got mail" may be the defining slogan of our age, but it excludes those who can't decipher their mail, electronic or otherwise. In a world where you can tell the rich from the poor by their Internet connections, the poverty line trips over the high-speed-digital line. The portal to the computer age is the keyboard--but too many Americans literally cannot read the keys.

The cost in terms of lost human potential is devastating. Consider crime. Sixty percent of all juvenile offenders have illiteracy problems; seven out of 10 adult prisoners have low literacy levels, and the current prison population of 2 million represents a dramatic concentration of illiterate Americans. As for that young man in Detroit, he will always have to rely on others for vital information to lead his life; he will always be vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by those who wield that one vital skill he doesn't have. And this in the world's oldest and most powerful democracy, whose citizenry make (or acquiesce in) decisions that affect the rest of the world.

I ran after the young man and caught up with him at the light. "Here, let me help," I said, taking the paper from him and reading the address aloud. "That should be that building over there," I said, pointing at a building half a block away, its name visible in large lettering above the entrance. He looked at me in gratitude, but I just felt helpless. I wished I had a leaflet on me for an adult remedial-education program, but he wouldn't be able to read that either.

"Thanks, man," he said, a delighted look in his eyes. He headed off--this time, at least, in the right direction.

© 2002