Human Cost of an Illiterate So essays

Human Cost of an Illiterate So essays The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society I agree slightly with Kozol, that widespread illiteracy may undermine democracy in the United States. Kozol says that illiteracy undermines democracy in the US since most illiterates do not vote. He claims that even when they do vote, illiterates are almost certain to vote not by ideology or political platform, but for whomever they can remember from a street sign or television ad. Kozol also claims that since 60 million people in the US are illiterate, about one third of the population at the time of his publication, that our own US government is neither of, nor for, nor by, the people, which is the very basis of American democracy (p. 207). Illiteracy works hard here to undermine our political democracy. There are many things that I think can be done to lessen the problems of illiteracy. We should push harder in primary schooling to be sure that everyone who attends is able to read. If someone is able to slip through there, then there should be other social programs that teach reading. A number of reading courses could be set up through community centers, non-profits, churches, etc. to help those who cant read get help. I think that anyone who knows that they cant read would obviously take whatever assistance they could get if they only knew it existed. Kozol describes many challenges that the average illiterate would have to face on an almost daily basis. I think that Kozol does a good job in describing how illiteracy can impact someones life so relentlessly, but at times I felt that Kozol might have been exaggerating exactly how much illiteracy would have caused problems. Kozol may have several motives for exaggerating. I think he was attempting to evoke sympathy by showing what the extremist illiterate must face. He shows what the most acute problems could be for an illiterate. He does this so that people may realize t ...