People usually resist change unless there is a problem. You can read and as far as you know your associates can read, so you may doubt that illiteracy in English is a real crisis. This book reveals the following facts.
Seriousness of the problem: Functional illiteracy causes at least thirty-four different types of serious physical, mental, emotional, financial, and medical problems for those who are illiterate Many of the simple tasks needed to thrive in a society are completely beyond the abilities of functional illiterates. As a result of the coping skills functional illiterates have developed you may be unaware of several of your friends, relatives, and associates who are functionally illiterate.
Extent of the problem: According to the most extensive study of functional illiteracy ever commissioned by the U.S. government, a $14 million, five-year study involving lengthy interviews of 26,049 U.S. adults statistically chosen to represent the entire U.S. population, and verified in a follow-up report released in 2006, 48.7 percent of the two least literate of the five literacy groups in the study earned significantly less than poverty-level wages. We do not see that level of poverty because most families have more than one employed adult and because low-income families receive financial and other assistance from the government, family, friends, and charities. Even so, the report showed that 31 percent of the two least literate groups were in poverty.
Results of the problem: (1) Functional illiteracy costs every adult American, reader and non-reader alike, at least $5186 each. The cost of English illiteracy will be similar in other countries, depending upon the percentage of people whose primary language is English and upon the percentage of them who are functionally illiterate in English. (2) Functional illiteracy adversely affects every business, some of them very seriously. (3) Functional illiteracy is a large part of the reason for the outsourcing, offshoring, and all of the other flattening factors in the U.S. economy described in Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat, and for the monthly U.S. trade deficit growing steadily worse for several years. (4) Many people are concerned over poverty, but they fail to realize that functional illiteracy among English-speaking people has a very large part in causing that poverty. (5) Many people are concerned about the misunderstandings over English written materials exchanged between English-speaking people and people who speak other languages without realizing that although spoken English is used for communication between people who have different native languages far more often than any other language, far more people can speak English than can fluently read English. (6) Most beginning students require at least two years to learn to read English.
Solution to the Problem: The proposed solution has been proven effective in over 313 languages other than English. It has never been tried in English, even though it has been recommended by numerous Educational and Linguistic scholars for over two centuries and even though all objections to the proposed solution have been thoroughly debunked by several distinguished scholars. The proposed solution is an improvement to previous proposals. The need has become more serious in the last eighty years, and with the use of present-day computer technology the solution is now amazingly easy to implement. Every student other than the most seriously mentally handicapped will be able to learn to read in less than three months, as they do in 98 percent of other alphabetic languages.
Cleckler, armed with facts and figures, illustrates the cost to the national economy of the appallingly low rate of literacy in the United States. It s high time, he maintains, that we stop merely treating the symptoms of the disease of illiteracy. . . . Let s get to work, he calls out, on the root cause of the disease. . . . But as Cleckler points out, only in the past decade has our nation become aware of the vast cost of illiteracy. This continually rising cost may soon deem essential changes in the way we [teach students to read]. So Cleckler sounds the call once again to make order out of chaos. He not only sounds the call. He has developed an orderly [solution to our literacy crisis], and shows how to [implement] it. Even the skeptic should take heed to his counsel. Those already favoring [similar solutions] should rally round. This is the time for concerted action on the part of all. [His proposed solution] may well become the Reformation of the 21st Century. --Dr. Robert S. Laubach, Laubach Literacy International Personal email from Dr. Laubach
From the Author
If enough people read and apply what they read in this book, our literacy crisis will definitely and permanently end. Over 93 million U.S. adults and hundreds of millions of English speaking people around the world who cannot read English very well (if they knew the situation) would plead with you to give them a chance to learn to read and thereby improve their living conditions.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Bob Cleckler is a retired Chemical Engineer. After receiving his B.S.Ch.E. from The University of Texas, he worked as an Aerospace, Product, or Safety Engineer for Hercules, Inc. for 29 years. In his last assignment he was one of only two people who reviewed every proposal for any change in materials, equipment, facilities, or procedure which could in any conceivable way cause an unintended explosion in the manufacture of solid propellant rocket motors at the $600 million rocket motor plant in Magna, Utah. The need for extreme caution in manufacturing the solid propellant motors is due to the sensitivity of the nitroglycerin based propellant. If he and his boss approved the change, it was presented to the Plant Process Control Board consisting of the Plant Manager, Asst. Plant Manager, and the head of all the departments.
After reading Jonathan Kozol's 1985 book, Illiterate America, he was shocked at the serious physical, mental, emotional, medical, and financial problems that illiterates must constantly endure -- problems that we would consider a crisis if they occurred to us. Illiterates must endure at least 34 different types of problems in order to "get by" in our present complicated society. Many simple daily tasks we take for granted are beyond the abilities of many illiterates.
Cleckler began researching to find a solution to the problem of English illiteracy. He spent over a year reading every book available from the Marriot Research Library at the University of Utah and the Salt Lake City main library on the subject of his research. He studied dozens of books, many of which are never considered in Teachers College courses on teaching reading. He discovered that there is a simple solution to the problem which has never been tried in English. He wrote a book about his findings titled "Instant Literacy for Everyone," published and totally financed in 1993 by Northwest Publishing.
Shortly after his book was published he read the 1993 "Adult Literacy in America" report, the most accurate and most comprehensive study of U.S. adult literacy ever commissioned by the federal government. It was a five-year, $14 million study involving lengthy interviews of 26,049 adults statistically balanced for age, gender, ethnicity, amount of education, location (urban, suburban, and rural from twelve states across the U.S. including 1,100 prisoners from 80 prisons) to represent the entire U.S. population. The study divided the interviewees into one of five groups, depending upon how well they responded to written English material they were given to read. Among other things, data was given on the number of adults who were in each group, Level 1 being least literate and Level 5 being most literate, and then the following data was given by Literacy group: the number of days each year that each person worked full time and part time, the hourly wages earned when working, and the percentage of adults in the group in poverty. The report did not provide the U.S. Census Bureau threshold poverty wages. A 1148 word article about the report appeared on the front page of The New York Times (and perhaps syndicated to other newspapers) and a 304 word article by a Washington Post writer appeared in other newspapers On September 9, 1993. Both articles badly understated the seriousness of the study. The New York Times article even had several factual errors. About the worst either article could say about U.S. adult literacy based upon the study was that "Nearly half of all adult Americans read and write so poorly that it is difficult for them to hold a decent job...."
Although that statement (from the Washington Post article) was true, and although the data in the Adult Literacy in America study were shocking, it did not take a rocket scientist (as, indeed, Cleckler had been for many years) to see that a better analysis of the data in the report was badly needed. A few simple ratio multiplication steps by Cleckler provided average annual earnings for each literacy group. Comparison of that data with the threshold poverty level wages for an individual in the 1993 U.S. Census Bureau report showed that a shocking 48.7% of U.S. adults (the average earnings of everyone in Level 1 and Level 2 groups) read and write so poorly that they do not earn above-poverty-level wages. Similar calculations showed that 31.2% of adults in the two least literate groups were in poverty (48.7% times 31.2% equals 15.2%, the percentage of all U.S. adults in poverty, a figure similar to estimates of total U.S. adult poverty calculated by other means). Only 10.1% of adults in the three most literate groups were in poverty. Since there were no provable differences in those in Level 1 and 2 groups versus those in Levels 3 through 5 groups except their literacy level, the 10.1% poverty can be attributed to all causes other than illiteracy. When 10.1% is deducted from 31.2%, the 21.1% of poverty can logically be attributed only to illiteracy. In other words, more than twice as many (21.1 vs. 10.1) U.S. adults are in poverty because of their illiteracy as for all other reasons combined. We are not aware of such levels of illiteracy and poverty because illiterates are extremely good at hiding their illiteracy, because most families have more than one employed adult, and because low-income families receive financial help from government agencies, family, friends, and charities.
When Cleckler studied his findings after carefully analyzing the Adult Literacy in America study, and when he saw statistics that an estimated 600 million English-speaking people around the world are functionally illiterate in English, his incentive to solve the illiteracy problem increased tremendously. He did additional research and completely revised his book. His new book, titled "Let's End Our Literacy Crisis," was published and totally financed by American University & Colleges Press in 2005. This book won finalist awards in two book competitions. It was one of six finalists out of 49 entrants in the Education/Academics category of the USABookNews.com Best Books competition with between 1000 and 1100 total entrants and one of eight finalists in the Education category of the Foreword Magazine Book-of-the-Year competition with 1540 total entrants. It received unsolicited testimonials from several reviewers including Dr. Michael Shaughnessy, Professor of Special Education at Eastern New Mexico University who emailed the author, "I have read the book, from the local public library and I agree with you 100 percent!"
Most significantly, Gary Sprunk, M.A. English Linguistics, read the book purchased from Amazon.com and decided (without the author's request or even suggestion that he do so) to form a non-profit company to promote Cleckler's proposal. He has established three websites, http://NuEnglish.org, http://NuEnglish.com, and http://NuEnglish.net. He wrote and published "Beginners' NuEnglish Workbook," based upon his experience as a teacher of English in a Korean elementary school and a high-school in Thailand. He has produced a program, Respeller, which will respell up to about 25 pages of traditionally spelled English into NuEnglish in a couple of minutes. It has a database of more than 506,000 English words. Respeller is free for all to use on his .org website. He is now preparing a NuEnglish dictionary.
A follow-up report was issued in 2006 by the same group that did the 1993 study, using a slightly smaller database (19,714 interviewees). This report did not show any statistically significant improvement in U.S. adult literacy.
Cleckler updated his book, removed some duplication and unneeded material, and rearranged the text to be more effective and his revised edition was published and totally financed by American University & Colleges Press on May 1, 2009. The revised edition is a 286 page paperback book with 162 pages of text, 10 appendixes totalling 57 pages, 174 end/reference notes, an extensive bibliography (including a few references that are not quoted or paraphrased in the book), a glossary, and an extensive index, among other things.
A short description of Cleckler's humanitarian project is explained on his website, http://literacy-research.com. This website has the first two chapters of his revised edition along with a book written in NuEnglish for free inspection.
America, according to this book, is in a literacy crisis. American students, declared George Bush Senior, are placed `dead last amongst the industrial world' in scholastic tests. If this was true (and still true), then why is it so? The Salt Lake Tribune reports that when American children finish their schooling, nearly half of them will `read and write so poorly that it is difficult for them to hold a decent job'. Leaving aside what might be defined as a `decent' job, functional literacy is surely one of the objectives of education? As is pointed out in this book, illiteracy costs the individual, their family and the broader community.
How can this literacy crisis be solved?
In the first part of this book, Mr Cleckler outlines the impacts of illiteracy and talks about the size of the problem as well as some of the reasons why this is not acknowledged. In the second part, Mr Cleckler describes a solution, as well as issuing a challenge to the reader. Bob Cleckler makes a case for spelling reform, which is articulated clearly and documented meticulously in this book.
Many people would agree with Mr Cleckler. Sure, there are those of us who enjoy the challenge of English's idiosyncratic spelling, but most of us prefer modern English to middle English. And few of us would be disadvantaged if the spelling of English underwent further reform.
This book is focused on America, but the problem is far more widespread. I'll be passing my copy of the book on to other Australians with an interest in literacy. This book is well worth considering by anyone with an interest in the causes and consequences of illiteracy. And it is up to those of us who are functionally literate to make a difference.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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This review is from: Let's End Our Literacy Crisis: The Desperately Needed Idea Whose Time Has Come (Paperback)
Award winning author, Bob C. Cleckler, dedicated this edition of "Let's End Our Literacy Crisis" ...to the hundreds of millions of students around the world who tried - and failed.
Part One discusses the impact of illiteracy on employment, crime, standard of living, consumer rights, citizen's rights, education, lifestyle choices, and health risks. Cleckler talks about the size of the problem and the reasons this is not acknowledged. He provides facts and figures on the monetary cost of illiteracy and its causes worldwide.
In Part Two Cleckler offers a blueprint for a solution to our illiteracy, the logic, and how to implement the proposal. He challenges the reader to join in a proposal for a grass roots campaign concerned with putting into motion proactive steps to solve the literary crisis.
Cleckler has invested 22 years in a program of phenomenal personal research. The book is filled with helpful charts, graphs, figures, and tables which re-enforce the narrative. He has also devoted over 100 pages to a number of comprehensive appendixes, bibliography, a full index, and other valuable tools such a list of pertinent websites.
"Let's End Our Literacy Crisis" is made up of convincing evidence of the crisis we are facing worldwide with illiteracy. Cleckler's writing is clear, relevant and is a wake up call to educators, anyone in public office, and to all who are impacted directly and indirectly by this alarming crisis.
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This book, I have come to learn, is the first one to both present the alarming extent and consequences of illiteracy in the U.S. AND to propose a real solution to the problem. If the author had laid out only the problem, the reader would be left depressed. If Cleckler had given only the solution, the reader would wonder, "Why bother?" But the 2 together make a solid case.
There's an abundance of documentation and detail, in places too much. Just skip over the heavier tables and graphs. Better too much detail than not enough. I don't agree with Cleckler about renaming the letters of the alphabet, or including 35 pages of sample text in NuEnglish when 5 pages would have been plenty. And that sample text showed inconsistent and sloppy use of NuEnglish, but that criticism is more of a quibble when considering the scope of his work. We need to roll up our shirt sleeves and start applying the solution!
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