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Let's End Our Literacy Crisis: The Desperately Needed Idea Whose Time Has Come

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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

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.

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!

As one who has been on a 30 year journey from illiterate to author, I was stunned by this book. Bob hits the nail on the head and it is an incredible read full of facts and solutions, which blow your mind to the problems of illiteracy and how it affects everyone.

This is not just a problem for the U.S.A but any English speaking country and for those learning our language. It is a book you have to read from cover to cover and as you question, Bob gives you solution leaving you wondering why governments will not implement ideas that would benefit us all.

Bob also reveals the feelings of those affected by illiteracy, things we would not dare confess, yet we should, if we are to get support and change to this epidemic. I would highly recommend this book to everyone, as it affects everyone. I would especially recommend this book as a must read to authors of any genre, as it will answer why there is a decrease in readers, which we can do something about.

Hope this book gets on Oprah!!! And in the hands of those who have the power to implement change!!!

Christine Jones author of the Mariard Volumes

The approach to this issue is handled with ease by Bob
It has provided an opportunity for me to improve by skills with simple steps
I feel it is a necessary change and should be used by the USA school sytems nationwide

When I first picked up this book, I skimmed through it and was skeptical about what was apparently being proposed, but I decided the problem of illiteracy is serious enough that I should try to prove to myself that it was or was not a feasible solution. It was not until I read the final chapter of the text that I had seen enough facts to convince me. After all, what it proposes is contrary to "conventional wisdom." The author makes a convincing case of both the many types of serious problems that illiterates must constantly endure (I would feel like I was in crisis if many of the problems described occurred to me) and of the very large percentage of U.S. adults who are functionally illiterate (48 percent!). The book also details the monetary cost to every American of illiteracy, both reader and non-reader. After explaining the advantages of worldwide literacy and the effect of English being the only present global language, there is a long chapter explaining the main cause of English illiteracy -- the fact that learning to read English is more difficult than any other alphabetic language. The last half of the book explains the only solution that has been proven effective in hundreds of alphabetic languages other than English -- it has never been tried in English! There have been many proposed ways to improve the teaching of reading in the last eighty years or so, but all of these proposals have been merely fighting the symptoms of the difficulty of learning to read English rather than SOLVING the problem, as this breakthrough book proposes! As a result, none of the proposed ways of improving the teaching reading has made any overall statistical difference. As one of the Appendixes of the book proves, those who claim that there is improvement in the teaching of reading are using too short a time span in their data.

Well researched and well written, "Let's End Our Literacy Crisis" makes a strong argument that something's gotta change. Millions have difficulty reading English. A solution is needed, and this book opens the door. Cleckler offers a shift in thinking, a shift into a world where everyone can live with confidence and joy in all areas of their lives.

I have spent the last 12 years as the Chairman of a Literacy Committee and have not found a
more authorative reference than this one. Mr. Cleckler has made many outstanding observations
and has done a great job in researching his subject. I highly recommend reading his book.
Hal Shipley

Functional illiterates suffer very serious physical, emotional, mental, medical, and financial problems. The most accurate studies of English functional illiteracy proved that the 48.7% of individual U.S. adults, in the two lowest of five literacy levels, earned significantly less than poverty level wages and 31.0% of their families were in poverty! We do not see this suffering because illiterates are very good at hiding, there are more than one employed adults in the family, and they get government and private help. In 2008, illiteracy costs everyone --- even good readers --- an average of $5186 per year. Students in over 98% of alphabetic languages except English become fluent readers in three months or less. Most U.S. adults who've learned to read English well required at least two years because every word in their reading vocabulary must be learned one at a time since there are NO invariable rules of spelling and there are 1,768 ways of spelling 40 sounds in English! Nothing done since 1755 has significantly improved English literacy. The solution: spell words the way they sound --- the way the rest of the world does!

The quickest way to get this accepted world-wide is to build an English to NuEnglish translator into the Firefox web browser. Push a button, and the browser goes into phonetic mode.

All someone has to do is submit the darned thing to the open source project, and it'll get into the hands of about 100 million people in a few weeks.

It is not an entirely trivial undertaking... A simple dictionary obviously will not do the trick, because of the bizarre patterns latent in English.... Some kind of semantic filter algorithms would have be developed (and remain in a constant state of development....) to get the translations right. However -- suddenly about 300 million people would have access to the web in "English", and could drag and drop any form of computerized English into the web browser and be able to read 99% of it. Every English speaking illiterate and functional illiterate in the world would be screaming at the top of their lungs in praises of glory.

Someone really should organize this....