Portfolio: Final Exam, Frame I

Literature is one of the most important things a person can learn in school. Without having the knowledge in reading and writing it makes life harder to live because reading and writing is a part of our daily lives. A lot of people lack the knowledge of reading and writing and that affects their daily lives, like not being able to get a good job and supporting themselves. Because there are so many people in the world that are functionally illiterate, programs are being created on word documents that include spell checkers, grammar, and even paragraph structure to help. Geoffrey Meredith, author of “The Demise of Writing” explains his thoughts on people who are functionally illiterate. A lot of the population struggles with reading and writing and I can see that from observations I have made because people don’t realize the possible consequences that are before them.

Meredith exaggerates the fact that reading and writing is a big problem in our life now because a high percentage of youth cannot even fill out a simple employment form. He states that the baby-boomer cohort is not only the best educated cohort in history, but it is likely the best educated that will ever be. Slowly the population percentage of illiterate people is rising and that is not a good that at all. It seems that he is saying without the checkers we have now a lot of people would be struggling. Meredith is surely right about literature being a problem for many people because I see it daily in my life and I see the struggles that people go through.

I have noticed in my life that there are many people who are functionally illiterate. For example, I know that many of my family members who drop out of high school and want to start working early have trouble reading and writing. They didn’t take the time to got to school and get a good education and now they are struggling in life. Moving to the United States at a young age and learning to speak English and at the same time trying to maintain my native language is not easy. I struggled a lot through school with reading and writing because I was required to go to after school classes and improve on my native language and not forget it. By taking two classes and learning both languages really affected the way I write because the languages are so different, and it becomes confusing. I think that is one of the reasons why people are struggling so much with literature; they know more than one language and get confused. I have a family member that is now a fifth grader who speaks three languages, but struggles in reading. By fifth grade we are supposed to know the basics of reading and writing, but he still has difficulties reading. This is a big issue for him because where will he be standing in these upcoming years? It will be hard to get a job and do everyday things when reading and writing levels are so low. A lot of teens don’t realize that reading and writing is very important in life. We use the skills we learn in school about reading and writing everyday. It is crucial that we continue working on these skills.

Having the ability to read and write really reflects upon our daily lives. There are many consequences to individual who are functionally illiterate. For example, in any job the ability to read and write is a requirement. If the person is not able to do either one, they are most likely not going to get the job. Having no job is a problem too because how will a person be able to live their life without working. To manage this issue, it is important that teachers really work with individuals who are having trouble and help as much as they can so the student understands. Also, I think that if reading and writing were taught every year and focused on more, students will be able to continue learning and improving their literature. I know that in my years of school, reading and writing were not focused as much as they should have been. If teachers include reading and writing in every subject that they are teaching I believe that improvement levels will rise. It is not too late to improve the education system.

As Meredith mentioned, “Even in the United States, at a time when technological “Progress” makes reading a survival skill...” proves that slowly students are relying on technology and are not trying to improve on their literature. I have seen many people in my family struggle with literature and it saddens me to know that. It is not to late to do something about this problem that is rising more than ever now. It is crucial that we do something about the education system and make sure that every student is getting that extra help. Technology can be a big help, but there are times where technology fails and we will have to make corrections on our own. We have to learn that we cannot rely on technology and push ourselves to continue learning and improving our literature.