The MacNeil/Lehrer Report; Adult Illiteracy

[Tease]

JESSE HALLAM [played by Johnny Cash]: I can't read nor write.

WOMAN [played by Brenda Vaccaro]: Are you totally illiterate?

HALLAM: Well, now, what kind of dumb question is that? That's like asking, "Are you totally pregnant?"

WOMAN: I'm sorry.

HALLAM: All my life I've wanted to read.

WOMAN: May I ask you a personal question? How have you managed this long?

HALLAM: You lie a lot, you get cheated some, and you fake it.

ROBERT MacNEIL [voice-over]: In the movie, "The Pride of Jesse Hallam," Johnny Cash played a man who couldn't read or write. There are more than 25 million Americans like that.

[Titles]

MacNEIL: Good evening. Every year it's estimated close to a million young Americans drop out of school. Since most of the dropouts haven't really learned to read or write, that means that each year America is turning out roughly one million more illiterates. They may join the estimated 25 million adults who already cannot read or write at all. Or the estimated 35 million who cannot read or write well enough to answer a want ad or understand the instructions on a medicine bottle. Taken together, the two groups constitute some 60 million adult Americans too illiterate to function in this increasingly complicated society. Statistically it makes them far more likely to be unemployed, to be on welfare rolls, or to become involved in crime. For the millions who do work hard and try to function, illiteracy means a life of underachievement, frustration and embarrassment. Many regard this high rate of illiteracy in the world's leading democracy as a crisis for America. Tonight, what can be done about it? Jim?

JIM LEHRER: Robin, the illiteracy problem has been no secret, and it didn't just spring up overnight, so there have been ongoing efforts through the years to do something about it -- efforts at the federal government level as well as private ones. The federal involvement stems from the adult basic education program set up with the War on Poverty in 1964. It's for adults 16 years or older who did not finish high school. Some 2.1 million were involved in training under it last year. Another federal effort was the Right to Read program set up in 1971 with the mission to rid the country of illiteracy in 10 years. It went out of business last year with the problem still there, if not worse. The two major private efforts are the Literacy Volunteers of America and the Laubach Literacy Organization. The Laubach approach differs in its basic teaching method, which is one on one.Last year, 25,000 Laubach volunteers taught some 35,000 adults to read and write in some 560 different communities around the country. Robin?

MacNEIL: One place where the Laubach method is actively used is in the literacy centers in Minneapolis-St. Paul where volunteers operate out of their own homes, in libraries, community centers, students' homes, even prisons. We went to the twin cities and talked with teachers and students in the program. Barbara Ecklund is director of the Minneapolis Literacy Project and a tutor herself.

BARBARA ECKLUND: When these folks come in and talk to us about their reading problems it's almost like confession because it's something they have hidden for years, and maybe just recently have admitted it to themselves that they have this problem and they need to seek help for it. It breaks my heart sometimes to hear the things that people tell me, from a fellow who -- he works well on the job; he's a good leader.The boss has asked him to take a promotion to foreman, and he has to turn it down because he can't handle the paperwork that goes with the job. One of our students in the program came in this morning to buy books, and we talked about this a bit, and she told me how, like, at work she'll get memos and written stuff that comes through the mail, and she can't understand it; she needs to know the information for her job so she'll call work and say, "Oh, I spilled my coffee on this thing, I can't quite make it out. Can you tell me what it says?"

FRANK LANDINGHAM: I would pretend that I could read, you know. When somebody'd give me something to read, you know, I would say, later, you know, not in front of them.

DAN RITCHIE: You learn to be cunning, you know. You can, if you have any common sense, you can outsmart a lot of people.

Ms. ECKLUND: There's a young man in our program who is concerned. He wants to get married; he wants to settle down and have a family some day, and he feels inferior. He is afraid to meet women because he can't read and write. He can't even jot down their phone number accurately.

mr. RITCHIE: It was just hard all the time. You were embarrassed. There's times your stomach would be in knots. Some people were very kind; other people can be a little cruel.

MIKE ERIKSON: I used to be involved with church groups a lot, and then we'd get into Bible studies and that, and that's where I wanted to back out. I enjoyed the company; I really enjoyed being with them, but when it come down to the Bible studies, I'd just -- I'd clam up. I was very scared.

Ms. ECKLUND: A lot of times if you have to take a job application home with you the employer doesn't even want to see it when you finally bring it back, so you have to be able to fill it out on the spot, nice and neat, accurate information, and it all has to be truthful.

Mr. LANDINGHAM: I have went to around a hospital downtown, a general hospital, a long, long time ago, and we was all in a room and you were supposed to fill out an application out for custodial work, you know, and I couldn't do it. And so I just left.

FRANK PAPASODORA: I could fill out applications, but there were certain parts in the application where I couldn't understand, like "references," you know. With my last job, you know, my past job history, my background in education -- I was pretty ashamed of that because I didn't understand the meaning of the word.

Mr. RITCHIE: You knew you could do a good job. If you went up to apply for a job, for instance, you felt that you had the abilities of everyone else, except you couldn't fill in that application. And it was tough sometimes. Sometimes you would ask the gal behind the desk if she would help you. Sometimes they will; sometimes they won't. But as I look back, I'm sure after they did help you they threw it in the wastebasket, because there's going to be better people applying for the jobs. People who are educated.

MacNEIL [voice-over]: Dan Ritchie is a success story: a fourth-grade dropout, he's now taking college courses, and is a district councilman. Mike Erikson graduated from high school with only a fourth-grade reading level; he's hoping eventually to enter technical school. Frank Papasodora dropped out of school in the tenth grade. He wants to improve his reading so he can join the Marines. Frank Landingham is 52 and a Korean War veteran. He left school after the second grade.

Ms. ECKLUND: An adult that is functionally illiterate is a person that doesn't have the basic reading and writing skills to function in today's society, whether it's reading street signs to be able to get around town, or reading recipes, a prescription, directions, you know, things that a person needs to use every day in their lives that they're not able to do.

Mr. ERIKSON: I had a very tough time reading the newspaper. I start reading a sentence and get to a few big words, and if you don't get the meaning of those big words, what good is a sentence?

Mr. LANDINGHAM: I didn't know anything at all when my teacher would ask me to read. I didn't know nothing.I just sat there and read what I can, and most of it I can't hardly make out because of the words are so big, you know. [reading with Ms. Ecklund] The man is jumping. The man is kicking. The man is jumping and kicking.

Ms. ECKLUND: All right. Now, here's practice writing these letters.Would you like to do one on each line?

Mr. LANDINGHAM: Fish."F".[starts writing]

Ms. ECKLUND: Okay. That's a capital "F."

Mr. LANDINGHAM: Oh. [covers head]

Mr. RITCHIE: I was starting to read, but I realized I was missing several words, for instance, on a page. If you were at a page, maybe I'd miss anywhere from five to 10 words on that page, maybe sometimes three, depending on the material you read. And one day I was sitting in my living room, and I realized that something wasn't right and it's time to do something about it. So to be honest with you, I just screamed up to the good Lord for help.

Mr. PAPASODORA: The big words I couldn't understand, you know. So I knew from then it was a problem right then and there so, you know, when I got into a section, you know, where I was really interested, like in sports, like in boxing, I'd really try to get down with it.Then all of a sudden I got caught up on all these big words, and I couldn't understand them, and that really made me mad, you know.

Ms. ECKLUND [tutoring Mr. Papasodora]: Well, Frank, before we check over your homework here, let's review these different kind of sentences that you are learning about.You want to just write predicate or subject. Which do you think that is? He is at the party.

Mr. PAPASODORA: He is at the party. That would be a subject.

Ms. ECKLUND: Okay. Let's think a minute. The part of a sentence that names person, place or thing is called the subject. The part of a sentence that tells what the subject is or does is called the predicate.

Mr. PAPASODORA: So it would be called a predicate.

Ms. ECKLUND: Yeah. "Is at the party."

Mr. PAPASODORA: He is at the party. Okay.

Ms. ECKLUND: Yeah, right.

Ms. ECKLUND: A lot of the people that we see in our program in some sense kind of slip through the cracks of our regular education system.

Mr. ERIKSON: They don't give enough time. They just try to push you through. They don't try to help you. They just try to push you on, give you a graduation, give you a diploma and that's it.

Mr. PAPASODORA: I don't blame nobody because they were there to do the job, but it was my responsibility to make it. That's all. Apparently I blame myself because a lack of attendance, and ashamed of not learning.

Mr. RITCHIE: Well, my educational background wasn't a verygood one. School for me wasn't too good, I guess. I didn't learn nothing in school. I feel that somewheres along the line I slipped through someone's fingers, maybe in the first, second, third grade, and by the time I got to the fourth grade I was in trouble. But I still had to go back to the school board because they're the people that are supposed to be running this thing, and when they have all these illiteracies coming out of these schools, then they're not doing their job, and it's time for them to get out of the school. Or maybe to go back to school.

LEHRER: For more than 10 years, there has been a National Advisory Council on Adult Education with the task of advising the president, Congress, and every other part of the federal government on problems concerning illiteracy, among others involving adult education. It's a council of 15 members appointed by the president, and its executive director is Gary Eyre, who is with us tonight from New Orleans. Mr. Eyre, why is it that people can graduate from high school in this country and still not be able to read and write?

GARY EYRE: I think the gentleman in Minneapolis, the student, put his finger right on it when he indicated that, "They just pushed me through," and then went on to indicate, one of the students, that it is the school board's responsibility to focus attention on something perhaps more than rubber bands and paper clips, and that they ought to be addressing issues of curriculum, attendance, competencies, looking at the total picture there.

LEHRER: Whose responsibility is it, Mr. Eyre, to take care of these people who do fall through the cracks, who for one reason or another do not get a proper education in reading and writing in public schools?

Mr. EYRE: I think it's all of our responsibility. It's a societal issue. We've got, according to our reports and some research that you have done, we've got between 50 and 60 million adults in this country functioning with less than the competencies of a secondary education. It's a national crisis. It's all of our responsibility.

LEHRER: Does the federal government view it as a national crisis?

Mr. EYRE: Yes, I think the federal government does. They are putting energies into it in terms of dollars.As you know, a $100-million effort just this past year on the part of the President and Congress to address the issues of, you know, literacy in this nation.

LEHRER: Is $100 million going to do it, Mr. Eyre?

Mr. EYRE: No, I don't think so, Jim. My estimate would be, if you look at the problem of, let's just say, 20 million illiterates -- not functional illiterates, but illiterates -- and you look at $100 per individual, which is about the average cost now in the public school program, to address that in adult education, my guesstimate would be that we need a billion-dollar effort a year for five years to address those issues and concerns of 20 million illiterates.

LEHRER: Is that kind of commitment ever going to be made, Mr. Eyre?

Mr. EYRE: I don't think so. I think we're going to fall short of that although I am very pleased to note more and more local and state effort on the part of school districts, on the part of the government structures, in state departments of education, the state legislature. The federal effort is relatively small when you combine all of the local, state and federal efforts together.

LEHRER: The federal efforts up to now have been terribly ineffective, too, have they not, sir?

Mr. EYRE: Oh, I wouldn't say "terribly ineffective." I think it's probably one of the finest, cost-effective programs that we've had --

LEHRER: "Ineffective," I meant, in terms of reducing the illiteracy problem as a whole.

Mr. EYRE: Yes, in terms of numbers you're absolutely right. When we only address, as you clearly pointed out, two million people per annum with a problem of 50 million, we're barely scratching the surface.

LEHRER: You said that it would take, your guestimate would be $1 billion a year for five years; you mentioned the $100 million that is now being spent. Of course, under Reagan administration recommendations, they want that reduced to $86 million. Does that indicate a national commitment to the illiteracy crisis, or how do you read that?

Mr. EYRE: Well, the President is sustaining a commitment at the $86-million level.My colleagues in adult education at the public school level would naturally like to see that commitment higher. But no one can argue with the deficit problem that we have. The President would like to return the governance of public education back to states rights, and in light of that, I do see some additional commitments on the part of school districts and boards of education along that line.

LEHRER: All right, thank you. Robin?

MacNEIL: One of the most active campaigners for a more effective assault on American illiteracy is Jonathan Kozol, a Boston teacher who studied Cuba's literacy campaign. Mr. Kozol is a consultant to a number of school systems, and his latest book, Prisoners of Silence, contains a plan for combatting illiteracy. He's with us tonight in the studios of public television station WGBH in Boston. Mr. Kozol, first of all, have countries like Cuba and Nicaragua really eradicated illiteracy, as they claim, or are they using quite different standards and measurements than ours?

JONATHAN KOZOL: Well, I'm not an expert in the situation in Nicaragua by any means --

MacNEIL: Well, take Cuba.

Mr. KOZOL: In the case of Cuba, I tend to believe what I saw before my eyes, and also what UNESCO has very diligently researched. An excellent report done several years ago by an Italian scholar, Anna Lorenzetto, seems to confirm that they began on the fall of Batista's regime with approximately 24% of the population illiterate. That's about the percentage we face in the United States today -- 20% total illiteracy in the United States. It's very close. And according to UNESCO figures, they've reduced it in Cuba now to something like two or three, maybe four percent at most. Now, because Cuba is a sensitive issue in the United States, let me make perfectly clear that this isn't a blanket endorsement of all the things that go on in Cuba. I just think that we'd be very stupid in the United States not to learn the one most important lesson which Cuba has to offer us, since they've stolen a lot of good ideas from us. The lesson is not how to do it; the lesson is that it could be done.

MacNEIL: Now, just to go back over the American situation, what is your explanation of why there are so many illiterates in this country?

Mr. KOZOL: Well, I think there are a number of reasons. The schools over the years have surely failed, and to a considerable degree what we're dealing with today in the inner cities of the United States, for example, where the illiteracy rate is three times as high among black adults as it is among white adults, what we're dealing with there is the residue, residual problem, that remains from decades of racial segregation and education, which the courts have since adjudged to have been substantially inferior for black people than for whites. That, I hope, is a problem which will not repeat itself in the decades ahead now that cities like Boston have desegregated. That's perhaps a local problem. I think a political explanation is that the adult illiterate in the United States, unlike most other oppressed groups, is not in a good position to lobby for himself, or perhaps I should say "herself," since the majority of illiterates are women. They are not able to lobby as blacks did, as Chicanos can, as Jewish people and other minority groups do because, unlike all these other groups, they can speak but they cannot write. They can't write their senator; they can't write a press release; they can't even spell a picket sign. And most important, the majority of illiterates don't vote. This is very important because, according to the figures you have just reported in the beginning of the program, there are more adult illiterates in the United States today than the number of people who cast their vote for Ronald Reagan in the last election. That is an interesting and painful comment on democracy.

MacNEIL: Briefly, what is your plan for solving this problem?

Mr. KOZOL: Well, first of all, I would accept straight on the opinion of the former director of Right to Read, Gil Schiffman, who quit after eight or 10 years in that program -- quit, announcing that the program was a failure.I think we should admit it was. There are lots of good grassroots programs in the country, but the fact is nothing can be done without an enormous national mobilization, and this $87 million that the Republican administration is proposing is absolutely absurd. We need at least the $5 billion that your other guest suggested earlier on the program. I would suggest $25 billion. Eighty-seven million is an insult, and to throw it back to the states is absurd. The states have less money than ever. They're laying off teachers at the present time.

MacNEIL: Well, apart from spending a great deal of money, what is the nub of your plan to solve this?

Mr. KOZOL: Okay. We need people. We need man-, woman-, person-power. We need at least five million people to be mobilized energetically for at least one year -- and I would go along with the suggestion, perhaps, of five years -- to be mobilized intensively, five million people to work with 25 million of those who are the total illiterates in the United States -- to use estimates from Newsweek and The New York Times. Approximately one to five. Now, they might work in small groups, but they might work individually, one each with five people at different times during the day or during the week. But they would work intensively with those people; they would work all the time with them for at least six months, eight months, a year, or in tandem with other workers over the course of three to five years. Where would they come from? That's an interesting question. Because I think it could be done relatively cheaply, as long as we had enough money to organize it well and to mobilize people. Number one, we could make literacy training an acceptable, legitimate and honored alternative to military service. My suspicion, if I know most of the kids in high school and college today, is that it would be far more popular than killing people, and probably the literacy work would prove to be the normal form of service. Going out to war would be alternative. There's one way you'd get a lot of people.

MacNEIL: To put your idea in a nutshell, would I be accurate in suggesting that what you're proposing is a massive federally organized and funded commitment to tackle what many people regard as this crisis? Is that right?

Mr. KOZOL: Okay. If the leadership could come from the federal government, if we had in Washington people who were motivated ethically to do that, then indeed that would be the absolute priority. I think it's unreal to look for that type of leadership from the people who are now in Washington. I think we should look instead to the major corporations, to the grassroots organizations, to the literacy groups, to the library organizations, and above all, to the print media in the United States, because they have a good, enlightened self-interest in seeing more people read.

MacNEIL: Well, thank you. Jim?

LEHRER: Mr. Eyre, is Mr. Kozol right when he says it would be a mistake to look to Washington to lead this kind of effort that he's talking about?

Mr. EYRE: I don't think so, Jim. I think there can be a coalition of effort. I certainly agree with Jonathan that we need to involve more and more of the business and industrial sector. I see that happening across the country within the public school sector in terms of business and industry working hand-and-glove with adult education.

LEHRER: But is it realistic, his idea of mobilizing five million people to work for at least a year with these 25 million totally illiterate people? Is that a realistic idea?

Mr. EYRE: I think it's realistic idea in terms of volunteer service and supplementing highly trained and well-qualified instructional people in adult education.

LEHRER: Well, if it's realistic, let me ask you, do you think it's going to happen?

Mr. EYRE: Yes, I see some efforts going on right now. There's a coalition for literacy taking place right now at the American Library Association. And other groups getting together to mobilize efforts of voluntarism to focus a spotlight of attention on the problems of illiteracy in this country.

LEHRER: Mr. Kozol, let me ask you. You say you need five million; Mr. Eyre says there are already efforts being made. How many of those five million do you think are now out there working?

Mr. KOZOL: A tiny number. You've already quoted tonight the figure of 35,000 working in the Laubach program -- or reaching 35,000. That's a very good program, by the way. So is Literacy Volunteers of America. That's just a fraction. We are reaching in all, at the present time, only four percent of the adult illiterates in the United States.

LEHRER: Are you as optimistic as Mr. Eyre is that this could actually be done, that this problem could actually be solved?

Mr. KOZOL: I am highly optimistic that it could be done. But I --

LEHRER: I mean that it will be done.I'm sorry.

Mr. KOZOL: No. I'm not optimistic that it will be done because it's one thing to say we will temporarily look for leadership to the corporations, the libraries and voluntarism, but in fact in the long run it's a tragedy that our national leadership does not take the lead. This, in the long run, is the only way that any government has ever licked this problem in history, and it has been done in other nations. It's a great humiliation to the United States.

LEHRER: Do you feel that it's a humiliation to the United States, Mr. Eyre?

Mr. EYRE: Well, yes, I do, but let me point out something.Jonathan indicated that in Cuba that they solved the literacy problem. I'm wondering if they solved it there as they did in the Soviet Union. When I traveled in the Soviet Union with the Right to Read director, Ruth Love, we posed this question to leadership within the Soviet Union.And the answer was, "We consider a person literate if he or she can read and write their own name." Now, I don't consider that being a literate person at all.

Mr. KOZOL: Oh, I agree with you. That sounds absolutely senseless to me, and if that's what they mean, it means nothing. But that's not the case in Cuba. In Cuba they mean to be able to read and write effectively so you can understand the newspaper. But let's --

LEHRER: Gentlemen, I'm sorry, we have to leave it there.We're out of time. Robin?

MacNEIL: Mr. Kozol in Boston, Mr. Eyre in New Orleans, thank you both for joining us. Thank you, Jim.

LEHRER: Good night.

MacNEIL: That's all for tonight. We will be back on Monday night. I'm Robert MacNeil. Good night.