Improving The Literacy Of America Essay -- Illiteracy In America

Reading and writing are two of the nigh important functions performed on a daily basis by respective(prenominal)s. mavin problem in America is that a significant amount of the universe cannot perform one or both of these tasks. These two tasks are unremarkably referred to as literacy. What encompasses a literate individual is a contr e trulywheresial topic. For example, if psyche can read a sentence and decipher what it corresponds does this mean the person is literate. Or should the individual be able to interpret a sentence as well as write and respond to a given over situation to be considered literate. Due to this vagueness in what encompasses a literate individual, I pull up stakes not state statistical study just about the state of literacy in the United States. The statistical information is not important, sooner the bearing the literacy rate can be risen in the U.S. is what is important. A general situation that has to occur to raise literacy rate is the situation where an individual has the desire to read and write and does not do so but because of instruction from authority figures. This certainly is not occurring today, as exemplified by the termination that as yet a best-selling book in this country talent reach 5% of the population (Castell 38). Perhaps a better way to influence the literacy in America is to examine the schoolrooms where primary education accommodate toward literacy takes place. This refers to elementary and middle school classrooms. An examination of what processes in a classroom context help develop literacy in individuals is an important aspect of the literacy of the children in America. Three aspects of a classroom that affect literacy are the power of the teacher, community of stakess with peers, and access to tools of literacy. Power, in this case, refers to the power of the teacher and the extent to which this person expresses this power. The teacher serves to regulate the activities of children. One of the most important things that he does is to foster the interest and learning of the pupils. In this way the teacher has infinite power over his subjects. He can assign work, manipulate exactly what the student has to live for his class, and alter his teaching styles for different subjects. Traditionally little power is given to the student in the classroom setting. Often times students regurgitate memorized information in order to perform in a well in a given class. Th... ... learning literacy desirable to the student, which obviously increases learning. The United States has to prod toward implementing better literacy-directed learning in our schools classrooms. In the long-run, this will help the U.S. compete on the national level with other countries. tho the advantages to a more literate society are obvious even when viewing the issue on a more personal level. Literacy is the divulge to the social world as well as the job market. Individuals who derive from the increase in l iteracy rate will be more sure-fire in life and maybe even have higher feelings toward themselves. The fancy of a totally literate America is certainly a very promising and positive one. Works CitedBloome, David. Classrooms and Literacy. New Jersey Ablex , 1989. Castell, Suzanne De, et al., eds. Literacy, Society, and Schooling. New York matter Syndicate, 1986.Harris, Karen, and Barbara Baskin. Toward a Culturally Literate Society. School Library Journal 35.12 (1989) 29-32.Wells, Gordon. The govern of Proximal Development and Its Implications for Learning and Teaching. Sep. 1996. http//cite.ped.gu.se/network/zpddiscussion.html (31 Mar. 1999).