Illiteracy causes Poverty "Illiterate adults account for 75 percent of the unemployed, one third of the mothers receiving AFDC, 85 percent of the juveniles who appear in court, 60 percent of prison inmates, nearly 40 percent of minority youth, and over 70 percent of the high school dropouts. " 50% will learn using any method 20% will have difficulty 30% will have great difficulty and need explicit phonics Only 2.5-5% of bottom 20% will not learn from phonics source: Either Riggs or Lyons of the NIH. Reid Lyon, Executive Director of the National Institute of Health says children are whole language impaired. To: The LOOP:;;;@tenet.edu;, Eduction-Consumers , "Conservatives for Excellence in Ed." From: Leon Todd (by way of James Kilpatrick) Subject: Illiteracy causes poverty Date sent: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 06:47:54 -0600 (Leon Todd: Yes, this is an excerpt from a longer piece I am working on) Illiteracy causes poverty. In the information economy, illiteracy leads to poverty much more readily than it did in the industrial economy. Literacy allows a person to rise above the poverty class status to which s/he may be born. Illiteracy in the information economy will cause poverty for any individual, class or race of people much more readily than in the agricultural or industrial economy. Illiterate adults account for 75 percent of the unemployed, one third of the mothers receiving AFDC, 85 percent of the juveniles who appear in court, 60 percent of prison inmates, nearly 40 percent of minority youth, and over 70 percent of the high school dropouts. Illiteracy causes poverty. We are witnessing a widening bell curve gap between the literate middle class and illiterate poverty class people mostly of color. We are fast becoming a nation divided between those who can read and those who cannot. This is the real bell curve gap of Charles Murray between readers and non readers. Unfortunately, in urban school districts this reading gap is being played out in terms of race. We are rapidly becoming two nations: one black and underachieving; the other middle class and mostly white. The gap within our public schools between high achievers and underachievers is growing wider year after year. The race card in America will be played out over and over again between middle class achievers who are largely white and poverty class underachievers, mostly of color unless we can resolve the reading gap within urban school districts. What do we really know about how children learn and how they don't learn to read. We know that fifty percent of all children will learn to read using any reading method within a school environment. This simply may mean that these natural readers come to school with the proper phonics foundation from their middle class parents who have the resources and nurturing interest to read and re-read books like Dr. Seuss, Richard Scarry or arrange for quality viewing time with a program like Sesame Street. They have a higher degree of phonemic awareness than non natural readers. These middle class, mostly white, children will appear to the whole language teacher to be able to learn how to read at school from any reading method. They are good candidates for the whole language guessing game or the three cue pedagogy. The next 20% will have difficulty leaning to read. Up to 30% of the bottom group will have great difficulty learning to read. So the bottom 50%, a large percent poverty class children of color in urban school districts, need to be taught the way research supports using direct systematic phonics instruction. The only kids who appear not benefit from being taught the way research has proven is 2.5% to 5% OF THE LOWEST 20%. Reid Lyon, Executive Director of the National Institute of Health, notes emphatically that oral language is natural, reading is not. Dr. Lyons claims, based on his findings, that learning to read is much more difficult than learning to speak and is not in any way analogous to learning oral language. Further, Dr. Lyons states that 80 to 90% of children diagnosed as learning disabled are really reading disabled or phonically challenged. "They have the necessary intelligence, vocabularies, and reasoning skills to read. So why can't they read?" Lyons throws out the gauntlet "they are CURRICULUM DISABLED or or whole language impaired." Many poverty class children of color come to school with a much lower level of phonemic awareness than their middle class counterparts for two reasons: 1) they learn a more limited range of phonemes because of racial isolation within the 'hood and 2) within this more limited range of phonemes, they know a different subset of phonemes from their home environment (ebonics) than the language or dialect of instruction. Whole language can be viewed as a racist pedagogy depriving many poverty class children of color the necessary skills they need to rise above their racial isolation. Illiteracy causes poverty. We are witnessing an ever widening bell curve gap between the literate middle class and the illiterate poverty class people mostly of color. We are fast becoming a nation divided between those who can read and those who cannot. We are rapidly becoming two nations: one black and underachieving; the other middle class and mostly white. The gap within our public schools between high achievers and underachievers is growing wider year after year. The race card in America will be played out over and over again between middle class achievers who are largely white and poverty class underachievers, mostly of color. And the stage for this race card is set within the urban school district of America. -------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 15:04:35 EST From: RCassel5 To: mcnee@rapid.co.uk, leontodd@execpc.com Subject: Re: Chicken and Egg: Poverty or Illiteracy First An excellence discourse. I agree completely that illiteracy causes poverty, not the other way around. Thanks, Ole Friend, R. Cassel -------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 18:33:14 -0800 From: Barb Witt To: Leon Todd Cc: Subject: Chicken and Egg: Poverty or Illiteracy First At the schools in Washington State, free lunches are doled out on the basis of income. Income is determined by the parent's assertion of their income level. For instance, I would check off the box by the appropriate income, sign the form and send it back to school. There is NO income verification whatsoever required. Everyone is encouraged to sign up, and the lack of verification requirements is no secret among the populace. My children are out of college and it was that way when they were in elementary. I recently called several schools in our county and the same situation still exists. Handy, as the the system not only generates more $$$ for the schools, but also spurious statistics, resulting in more programs due to massive "poverty". My question is, what does "poor enough for free lunch" really signify? Barb -------------------------------- On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, McNee wrote: One criterion for poverty here is how many children get free school meals. Poverty is often invoked, mentioned, when poor school achievement is being discussed. But we are now well into the third generation of poor readers. About 1960, parents could teach their own children; but many began to fail. By 1980, it was grandparents who could perhaps help. Nearly the year 2000, and granny has died. Before the war (I think) phonics was part of teacher training. Certainly phonics was not being discouraged, and perhaps common sense kept things safe. Was it 1971 when Frank Smith sprang to prominence? It was 1945 when Schonell first said that phonics was "deadly drill, dull as ditchwater" and enticed the first cohort of teachers to begin with look-say and have phonics as a last resort (which it still is). Then psycholinguistics pushed phonics completely off the menu for many teachers, so teachers neither knew their phonics nor wanted to. Schools took some kind of high ground that "We don't do it that way nowadays" as if only fuddy-duddies would use such an old-fashioned - out-moded - way of teaching reading as to use phonics. And it takes decades before a whole set of teachers who know how to use phonics retires and is replaced by a cadre of whole language gurus. Why are today's parents unemployed? Because they cannot read - and they cannot read because they were not taught how, as infants; and because they are unemployed, they experience poverty. I really would like to see everyone looking through the other end of the telescope. Instead of thinking that poverty causes illiteracy, think that illiteracy causes poverty. Tackle the illiteracy (of infants), more than the poverty, if you really want a long-term turn-around. Giving people money (allowances?) will not change things. It will not restore their self-respect or their employability. It is being able to read (and spell) that is the beginning, the first rung on the ladder out of the pit of unemployment and poverty. And you can target other items till you are blue in the face, problems will remain until we get back to literacy (and that means phonics-first). (But poverty can be used as a handy excuse by failing teachers and failing school districts.....) And if you are tired of hearing me say this, well. I am tired of saying it! Mona. >================================ Leon Todd MPS Board of School Directors 3447 N 47th St Milwaukee, WI 53216-3334 Ph: 414-444-9490 FAX:414-444-3997 alternate e-mail: ltodd@omnifest.uwm.edu EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE