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The Whole Book?

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kierynGraham

7 months ago

4 articles submitted

For all those years that I devoted the best of myself to introducing college freshmen to literature, I dreaded but felt compelled to ask, “What was the last book you read?”  I still laugh—and cry—when I remember the most common answers: “The whole book?” many would look vaguely shocked.  “I suppose that doesn’t include the Cliff’s Notes, hunh?” most would need to know.  And my all time favorite: “I know I finished Where the Wild Things Are.”

I wanted my freshmen to recover the pure joy of reading—the thrill they felt in first grade when the words first gave-up their meanings and suggestions.  The Big U required me to teach the classics; my conscience demanded I teach something engaging.  When I first learned the movie “Clueless” was a remake of Jane Austen’s Emma, I knew I had a sure-fire winner.  I subsequently learned Penelope Cruz adds allure to All the Pretty Horses, and The Milagro Beanfield War just simply enchants.  But even now, away from the campus for nearly 7 years, I worry and wonder: What ever happened to American literacy?

Through the fifties and sixties, American writers, businessmen, and politicians safely assumed their audiences had finished high school, had some knowledge of “the classics,” and had what we now call “cultural literacy.”  A high school diploma and functional English literacy used to be the norm rather than the exception.  Building their English literacy, high school students read Old Man and the Sea, The Great Gatsby, and maybe even Moby Dick, all of which initiated them into American values as well as the language.  Now, high school teachers won’t Moby Dick even in its graphic novel form; and literature has become the province of a privileged elite instead of the culture’s common currency.  Although the United States must promote the literature of the ethnic experience in this country, making powerful prose more accessible and seductive to wider audiences, we cannot cement the cultural mosaic without English literacy. 

Although the media have not explored the topic, economists frequently tie American economic decline to alarming increases in adult illiteracy.  As high school graduation rates plummet, illiteracy becomes this country’s most frightening epidemic, because sustained economic growth depends, in large measure on people’s command of language.  Statistics about illiteracy suggest it has become a cancer in the body politic: Some estimates suggest 40% of adult Americans cannot read above a third or fourth grade level.  Reliable studies also indicate that the majority of bi-lingual Americans remain illiterate in both their primary languages and English.  And recent surges in Asian, southeast Asian, and African immigration have complicated the problem of adult illiteracy, because native speakers of Asian and Arabic languages cannot “decode” the Phoenician alphabet, let alone English words.

Although many adults feel ashamed to admit it, they cannot read, or they cannot read proficiently.  The average high school graduate reads only at the eighth grade level. The average college freshman reads only at tenth grade level—four grades below the level of his textbooks.  Almost every major American university offers literacy classes for undergraduates.  Many employers complain new employees cannot read their training materials, and some have begun offering literacy classes for associates who want to advance.  As the internet becomes America’s most powerful commercial tool, literacy takes-on added importance. 

Even as the United States has become more sensitive to the value of cultural diversity, the importance of English-language literacy has increased.  Experts emphasize, more than ever, in order to participate in American culture and commerce, people must learn to read.  In the same way that the United States eradicated polio in the 1950’s, it now must take aggressive steps to eradicate illiteracy.