Illiteracy as a Root Cause of All the Major Problems of the Modern Humanity - Coursework Example

Topic Proposal I would like to write about the following problem (describe, explain Out of the many problems I had in my mind to write about; most of which do pose a serious hazard, I intend to seek the most ‘connected’ of them all. I opt to write about ‘Illiteracy’ subjecting research to America and consider my topic as one of the most elemental and a root cause of all the major problems faced by the modern humanity, its economic structure and more over our environmental stability. I am personally interested in this problem because: I am personally interested in this problem owing to the fact that I find ‘Illiteracy’ a major contributing factor in the most of our humanitarian, environmental and even economic; problems. Describe the people who are affected by this problem: Taking into consideration the fact that illiteracy and lack of education is a ‘fundamental’ problem of the civilized society and the fact that it ‘is’ due to education that people prosper in their individual lives thus contributing to a states’ general economic condition, not to mention the fact that the people of the modern era require education even for their basic survival; I’d be pretty sure that lack of education effects all; not a particular region or a certain place, it effects all of the humanity i.e. the entire population of this world. Write a paragraph identifying the problem in detail. Describe, define, limit &/or establish the problem: ‘Illiteracy’ would be the main focus of this essay. ‘Focus’- the perfect word; meaning the ‘centre’ and ‘spotlight’, now ‘Illiteracy’ here… is thought to be the Focal Point of the central causes of all the major problems faced by the modern world including threats as imperative as Global Warming itself. The intensity of the stated problem has been felt throughout history and has now reached a critical point where it threatens a question of life and death to the common man living amongst us and a question of stability in the environment, economic strength and a better future for our humanity for us more fortunate than the other illiterate ones. List at least six solutions to the problem that are plausible and feasible. Solutions; however hypothetical they seem are a mere reflection, an image or a possible theory to what in reality can be achieved to overcome a certain problem. Nonetheless six plausible solutions are listed as under to counter ‘illiteracy and the lack of education’; 1). Single Teacher Schools Should be established and funded in rural and far-off areas. 2). A certain number of illiterate students; say 20, should be assigned to a government; qualified teacher who should be rewarded a certain fixed amount on the successful passing-out of every one of their students. 3). Free Funding of the education system up to elementary level and free books, notebooks by the government should be encouraged. 4). Medium of education should be the mother tongue up to the primary level. 5). Teaching the parents; especially the mother, would impart a highly positive effect onto the child/student’s education by creating a proper educational environment at home. 6). The ‘whole word’ or the ‘whole language’ technique has proven to be fundamentally wrong since the very first day. Hence the methodology should be replaced by the use of ‘Phonics’ at the basic level. Which solution seems like the best one? Why? Rectifying the educational system at its very foundation and implementing the use of Phonics at its very basic level has a statistically more chance of success in overcoming the problem. Which solution is probably the worst choice? Why? Free Funding of the education system up to elementary level and free books, notebooks; by the government would of course have a positive impact but would be a sure wastage of government finances if the basic educational systems are not set right. How might field research (interviews, surveys, questionnaires) be useful? Field research, Interviews and survey reports might prove to be of major usage since they provide logical and statistical data regarding the problem. What types of library sources (magazines, books, science, government documents…) might be helpful? All sorts of material; printed or electronic, would be helpful in gathering more and more information about the problem especially government reports regarding literacy rates. I am thinking about the following alternative topics: 1. Global Warming 2. Clean Water 3. Sanitation. Student Signature: _________________________________________________ ‘Illiteracy’ Imagine a little boy, of no more than eight years of age; fragile, sensitive. The boy goes up to his father who stands near by holding a newspaper; peering into it. The boy asks what his father reads. The parent replies that he’s looking at the pictures, he can’t read. The boy asks his father to send him to school so that he can learn to read and write to which he’s told that it’s not affordable. ‘Illiteracy’ would be the main focus of this essay. ‘Focus’- the perfect word; meaning the ‘centre’ and ‘spotlight’, now ‘illiteracy’ here… is thought to be the Focal Point of the central causes of all the major problems faced by the modern world including threats as imperative as Global Warming itself. The intensity of the stated problem has been felt throughout history and has now reached a critical point where it threatens a question of life and death to the common man living amongst us and a question of stability in the environment, economic strength and a better future for our humanity for us more fortunate than the other illiterate ones. “Simply expressed, literacy is the ability to read and write.”(Audrey, 1990) Years have passed since the time when people used to live, i.e. survive by working without education and the basic needs of reading and writing. Today, the common man cannot do so. An illiterate person in our society is like any other translucent object, un-important; a burden for the government to bear and an embarrassment for his lot to live with. Illiteracy is not only the lack of a physical ability to read and write but also includes the awareness to know how vital it is to read and write. Realization and awareness play a key role in every problem analysis. Illiteracy already is a problem but it would surely be a bigger problem if no one realized the fact that people around us can’t read or write. Numerous families have been and still are on government’s support just in order to survive because of the mere fact that the working members of the families aren’t ‘educated’ enough to earn their living. Research indicates that around 23% of the population residing in America is functionally illiterate and another 26% are a “little” more literate than that. In the year 2004 “UNESCO estimates that around 800 million people are illiterate”. That makes one person illiterate in every six. In today’s world of Hi-Tech and all, can a person who doesn’t even know how to read or write survive? In a federally funded survey of 3600 Americans aged from 21 to 25 only 11% were literate. A person in his twenties is the earning hand of a family, imagine a person in his twenties unable to read…write… Consider the countries and states outside of America, consider the under developed, the developing countries of the world if the ratio is 1:6 in American states what would the ratio be there? Consider countries with literacy rates of below 40% can such a state endure this technological era the world is going through? “A total of 6.9 million people represent 38 per cent of the Canadian population aged 16 to 69 years” (Audrey, 1990), which is sadly unable to read common print material such as the newspapers. These days we talk about Global Warming, Poverty, Lack of drinking water; we talk of problems that have not yet come. Problems that are ‘yet’ to come in the ‘very’ near future, but we fail to realize the current, most obvious and basically the most important problem of this age: illiteracy. If only this ‘one’, single problem could be resolved somehow, and the world be educated and literate enough to read and write; we can state with certainty that the element of ‘awareness’ wont lack in humans anymore. All other problems as mentioned above are the mere consequence of this logically fundamental problem of all i.e. illiteracy. Illiteracy has not been some phenomenal adoption through history. There’s always been a cause behind an individual’s illiteracy and that cause has mostly overpowered an individual’s will to be literate and educated. Poverty happens to be one of the majorly noted causes. People don’t have enough resources to literate their children, which is why because they themselves are illiterate and cannot earn enough to send their children to schools. These children would grow up illiterate, following their parents’ jobs and would never be able to earn enough to become literate or educate their own children. In a report from the Journal of the American Medical Association study; "The Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults", used to measure the ability to read and understand medical instructions and health care information administered to patients in urban public hospitals. The study found that of 2659 patients, 41.6% could not understand directions for taking medicine, 26% were unable to understand information regarding their next appointment, and 59.5% could not understand a consent document (Inguanzo, 1997). Such importance does the state of illiteracy has in our society that common people who have no one to depend on aren’t even able to read their prescriptions. Some people on the other hand live independently in far-off areas, where the provision of schools and colleges seems absurd, hence these people, if not arranged for an alternative, would remain illiterate and so would their future generations be. Over 184 billion dollars are spent on free public education. Donations worth billions are presented yearly on free education. Taking these facts into consideration, let us consider that the individuals have a sufficient amount of funding to support their education, more than half the people would still be confused and stuck over the issue of ‘the whole word’ tact into teaching how to read and write. The use of Phonics has proven to be a more successful method. Given that the majority of schools and teachers still use the ‘whole word’ technique, we can ascertain that more than half of the already funded people would still remain illiterate. Illiteracy, quite evidently, has a negative effect on a family’s earning which consequently has a negative effect on the whole nations economy; given the fact that the individuals’ survival would be the government’s responsibility and such individuals would certainly fail to cope with the rapidly advancing techniques in the fields of physics, mathematics and various other modern sciences; thus failing to assist the government in providing high-tech local resource to work with. Solutions to the problem: “Illiteracy” – however hypothetical they might seem are a mere reflection, an image or a possible theory to what in reality can be achieved to overcome the problem. Illiteracy in the far-off areas can be treated by opening/housing single-teacher schools in those remote areas which would help in the education of the particular amount of personage residing in those areas. Since these people have no access to schools and other teaching facilities, most of the population remains illiterate their whole life; learning what they can from their parents and all the stumpy resources available in those areas. Establishing these single-teacher schools would in turn provide these people with opportunities that could alter their lifestyle and living standards. The problem remains that what teacher would take the responsibility of educating so far off and still be depended upon for successful literary transference. Anyone who would take such a responsibility would of course request high funding and yet the possibility of him/her not handling the job reliably persists since there would not be anyone to administer his/her standards and techniques. The chances that any “teacher” would do all this responsibly are very low. Even if the people there would come to the point of trying to learn how to read and write, what good would it be if the very basic educational technique applied would not suite the majority of them. In spite of simply sending underpaid, unskilled and unchecked teaching staff to far-off areas; assigning certain number of students to government trained teachers; well equipped with applicable literary techniques seems to be a better option. Care should be taken that the teacher must not be over burdened nor too relaxed with the number of students assigned and should be paid, rewarded and respected for successfully teaching the number of students that do succeed. But then again… the question of the people being able to afford all the expenses of tuitions and books and all remains unanswered. What use would it be until and unless the deep-seated virus of “whole word” technique is not treated. Helping people financially, giving off free books, free notebooks, waving off school and tuition fees and free public education would be helpful beyond doubt. Mainly for those who have been poverty-stricken since decades and even their future generations are not likely to be educated. But again comes the ‘root-factor’ that without curing the elemental problem; all the free books and all the free education would be a mere wastage of funds. Plus, the atmosphere in which the educational metamorphosis takes place is of great importance. If the environment does not suit the student: then his/her learning process would certainly be slow. Providing the suitable environment for a child/individual’s education, i.e. to be educated in their respective mother tongue, teaching parents first so that the home atmosphere should be literate (the child responds according to the company and atmosphere in which he/she is being groomed in) and ensuring the fact that at least the mother is taught and educated so that she transfers all that she is taught to her young ones - “female literacy impacts more positively than male literacy on child” (Palmer-Jones), is surely the very basic and first step towards a person’s literacy. Making available a proper educational environment wouldn’t be of any use if the methodology used would be faulty. Taking into account that this very basic step i.e. where the implementation of the ‘whole word’ technique takes place, is where the fault lies; it would be useless to teach if not the technique be corrected. Let us consider the example of West Dunbartonshire where a decade ago 28% of its eleven year olds were practically illiterate. Phonics was introduced and 10 years on; illiteracy among the eleven year olds has been reduced to ‘Zero Percent’! The use of phonics has been factually proven to be more successful in every area of the world and from every aspect. Hence taking into consideration all the facts acknowledged and all that has been discussed, solutions stated-verified, it can be concluded that the core of illiteracy is the fault that lies at the very basic level i.e. the ‘technique of teaching’ – which needs to be rectified and replaced by the method of phonics. All proposed solutions to the problem of illiteracy are incomplete without rectifying the fundamental cause i.e. the basic teaching technique. Annotated Works Cited Palmer-Jones, Vegard Iverson. “Literacy Sharing, Assortative Mating, or What? Labour Market Advantages and Proximate Illiteracy Revisited” Journal of Development Studies, Volume 44, Issue 6, July 2008 , pages 797 – 838. http://econpapers.repec.org/article/tafjdevst/v_3A44_3Ay_3A2008_3Ai_3A6_3Ap_3A797-838.html This paper surveys the house hold literacy rates, taking into consideration the statistically obtained data from the region of Bangladesh, and its connection to the labor market through which the drawbacks of illiteracy can easily be extracted. Thomas, Audrey M Encouraging Adults to Acquire Literacy Skills 1990. 16 Oct. 2008. http://www.nald.ca/library/research/athomas/encadu/cover.html Audrey has explained in detail the very ‘meaning’ of illiteracy, and has provided statiscal data regarding the literacy rates in adults. He has also focused on Adult Literacy Programs and has brought the psychological effects of the programs into light enlightening the problems faced by adults while attending these adult literacy programs. Inguanzo, J. (1997) “Based on response rates, phone surveys are much cheaper”. Marketing News, vol. 92, p.15. http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/cip/07.html The dissertation seeks to address the communication problem posed by the lack of literacy and recommends steps to be taken in order to improve the condition. Inguanzo also enlightens certain outcomes of illiteracy such as people being unable to read their prescriptions and dosage routines as assigned by their respective doctors. “Literacy and skills development” (2005). UNESCO Education. Retrieved August 24, 2006 from the EFA Global Monitoring Report Web site: http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php URL ID=35964&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Victor Lavy, Jennifer E. Spratt, Nathalie Leboucher, “Changing Patterns of Illiteracy in Morocco: Assessment Methods Compared” April 1995, Retrieved: 15-Oct-2008, Pages: 17 – 20, http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=67P6QMRdIn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=illiteracy#PPR4,M1 The publication is aimed to provide better basic information regarding literacy and its relationship to economy; considering the instance of Morocco; where the government aims to formulate policies to fight illiteracy. Nadin, Mihai. “The Civilization of Illiteracy”, 1997. Retrieved: 14th Oct, 2008. http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=QzfUFIDkKGUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=illiteracy#PPR5,M1 Mihai Nadin has discussed the outcomes of illiteracy such as terrorism and global migration, etc and has pointed out that the use of literate language does not conveniently solve all the reported issues as promised and the not-so-far tomorrow might be the end of literacy. Carman St. John Hunter, David Harman. “Adult Illiteracy in the United States: A report to the Ford Foundation”. Mc-Graw Hill Book Company. 1979. 14th Oct, 2008. http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED173775&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED173775 The book studies adult literacy placing the educational problems of adult literacy onto different levels of perception, provides extensive data in this regard and presents recommendations in order to overcome the problem. Morsy, Zaghloul; UNESCO, International Bureau of Education. “The Challenge of Illiteracy”. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved: 15th Oct, 2008. http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=kvcMlCcwnRwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=illiteracy&lr=#PPR13,M1 Zaghloul Morsy has narrated in this book; how the challenge of illiteracy has stood up to the modern intellectual human race even after all the research conducted in the area. He claims that what we know of illiteracy might be thought more than enough for us; but actually is a tiny snippet of what is needed to counteract the issue. Houston, R.A. “Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity”. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved: 15th Oct, 2008. http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=7xpedVRweWAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=illiteracy&lr=#PPP7,M1 The author has definitively discussed the reasons of literacy and the politics involved in it taking into account the area of Scotland. More emphasis has been laid on the illiteracy trends in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and literacy has then been compared to that in Britain. Harding, Sandra.G. “The “Racial” Economy of Science”. Indiana University Press. Retrieved: 15th Oct, 2008. http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=CmJWBaANlsEC&pg=PA1&dq=illiteracy&lr=#PPR9,M1 The book is written regarding the diversity of Western Sciences, its place in History and association to the sciences of other cultures. The author widely discusses the sciences of other cultures and recommends strongly that an individual is a major contributing factor to the progressive or recessive element in the economy and sciences of a particular region. Read More