Illiterate America
ILLITERATE AMERICA DURING the summer a good deal was expected of Mr. Hoover's new-found interest in the problem of illiteracy, and last week "with the approval of the President," Secretary Wilbur...
...They will help people who are already partly literate, and who are willing to learn...
...It is appalling to think of the results of a system of education standardized from Washington, open at once to the whims of Congress and to the influence of any outside group which commands a powerful lobby...
...More than this the advisory committee cannot very well be expected to accomplish...
...Most of our aliens are in the cities, yet the average illiteracy of rural districts is almost twice that of the cities, and it has often been pointed out that the states which have attracted the fewest immigrants happen likewise to be our most backward...
...No American can feel any genuine satisfaction with progress in the United States so long as we remain among the most illiterate of all occidental nations...
...Eventually, of course, many such opportunities will supplement the skimpy educational facilities provided in backward sections of the country...
...And properly so, we think...
...And for some years literacy has been a requirement for entrance into this country, yet there are more than five millions here who cannot read or write in any language...
...The committee does not meet until December, but it may not be unfair, meanwhile, to speculate upon its probable accomplishments...
...Wilbur refers, for instance, to the "new agencies" now being developed for educational purposes...
...They will be of greatest advantage in adult education...
...It can try to stimulate the sentiment which already exists, vaguely, but generally, that "something ought to be done" about illiteracy...
...Then the Office of Education "has already arranged for certain educational courses by correspondence that . . . will be made available to any isolated family...
...Whatever Secretary Wilbur's committee can manage to accomplish will be all to the good...
...One committee is studying the possibilities of radio...
...And we cannot excuse ourselves, as formerly, on the presence of many foreign-born among us...
...For the basis of any really effective attempt to reduce illiteracy must be an extension of the primary and secondary school systems, and in the United States the administration of schools has been traditionally regarded as a local and not as a federal function...
...With the help of the press it can engage in propaganda, and hope for effect...
...Hoover's new-found interest in the problem of illiteracy, and last week "with the approval of the President," Secretary Wilbur announced the appointment of an "advisory committee on national illiteracy...
...its work being handicapped, possibly by the fact that the people whom it is most necessary to reach do not often own a receiving set...
...It can suggest effective methods to be followed by the states and communities...
...At least, its work will represent the first serious attempt to lessen the evils of a very shameful condition...
...Large numbers of them have come home lands which have a higher average literacy than the United States...
Vol. 11 • November 1929 • No. 4
