2008 Woodie Awards
Literacy rates need improvement
Tiffany Gibson
Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: Features
From children's books to the greatest works ever published, being able to read is one of the most vital strengths for future generations to possess. However, with computer-animated video games and television programs with little knowledge capturing children's attention daily, it's not surprising that literacy rates are dropping while the opportunity for a quality education is being denied.
Of the five levels of literacy, 53 percent of Tennesseans are in the lowest two levels, so if our future leaders cannot read something as simple as an advertisement on a billboard, then the progress we have made over centuries is bound to destruct.
Of course, one factor that contributes to illiteracy among children is the lack of education they receive in the schools they attend, which evidently are not living up to their potential and standard of molding young minds.
When teens reach high school and are asked to read novels, some of them fail to do so because they were never challenged to read in elementary or middle school.
Not only are some of them not challenged, but to think children that struggle with reading simple sentences in elementary school are not pulled aside and put into programs to help correct this disability is outrageous.
By the time children reach a certain age they appear to have lost all interest in learning how to read because they think they can pass through life with the help of friends and tricks to shield them from the humiliation of asking for help.
For example, when an illiterate person is handed something to read they make up an excuse, such as sight problems or lack of concentration, but actually the letters and symbols written on a piece of paper in front of them register nothing.
In fact, some people go their entire lives having others read for them instead of taking the initiative to learn for themselves. It is understandable that they were denied learning this craft at an early age, but to refuse help later on is ignorant of them.
Of the five levels of literacy, 53 percent of Tennesseans are in the lowest two levels, so if our future leaders cannot read something as simple as an advertisement on a billboard, then the progress we have made over centuries is bound to destruct.
Of course, one factor that contributes to illiteracy among children is the lack of education they receive in the schools they attend, which evidently are not living up to their potential and standard of molding young minds.
When teens reach high school and are asked to read novels, some of them fail to do so because they were never challenged to read in elementary or middle school.
Not only are some of them not challenged, but to think children that struggle with reading simple sentences in elementary school are not pulled aside and put into programs to help correct this disability is outrageous.
By the time children reach a certain age they appear to have lost all interest in learning how to read because they think they can pass through life with the help of friends and tricks to shield them from the humiliation of asking for help.
For example, when an illiterate person is handed something to read they make up an excuse, such as sight problems or lack of concentration, but actually the letters and symbols written on a piece of paper in front of them register nothing.
In fact, some people go their entire lives having others read for them instead of taking the initiative to learn for themselves. It is understandable that they were denied learning this craft at an early age, but to refuse help later on is ignorant of them.
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