Alexis Brown
September 11, 2008
English 120
Dr. Miller
The Overlooked Importance of Childhood Literacy
If a person were to look through a kaleidoscope at our nation, the perception they would conceive is that America pretty much defines perfect. The advertised America is plastered with blonde bombshells, fancy cars, and an huge amounts of “easy” money. The side of America that is not profiled is a side where illiteracy and failure are ever present. This what I like t call the “overlooked” portion of America. The jewels and glam of the 21st century have blinded us to the truth. Though we as a nation have prospered in gigantic bounds, we still have people who cant even read a book. Adults who can not read, where children who were not taught. I feel that each child should be taught how to read at a young age I also feel that parents should push their children to want to learn and to want to read.
According to Robert Wedgeworth, one in five Americans are functioning illiterates, which means they function at the lowest level of literacy. There are many factors that contribute to the illiteracy in America. Immigration has played a big role in the low literacy rate of our nation. Between 1970 and 1998 the immigrant population grew from 9.4 million to 24 million. Today, children of immigrants are the fast growing part of America. One in five children are born of immigrant parents. About 64% of immigrants, born in a different country and of a different language, between the ages of 16-65 read at level 1 of the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). This means that they had trouble reading simple English. The poverty rate among immigrant of families and their children is one-third higher than that of American families and their children. As a whole, immigrants tend to be less educated then Americans and have great difficulty speaking, writing, and reading English. Thirty percent of immigrants have not received a high school diploma and immigration increased the...