Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 1

Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty

Maddison Josie Brewster

March 3, 2016
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 2

!
Abstract

Illiteracy, a monumental problem that affects all people within the United States. With

“one in four ‘American’ children growing up without learning how to read,” it is an oppression

that affects the entire nation, especially those who come from marginalized communities

(Quarles, 2015). This essay examines the impact illiteracy has on oppressed communities within

the United States. It looks at how illiteracy oppresses residents within the education, economic,

and criminal systems. By exploring the direct correlation between poverty and literacy, this

essay will explain how illiteracy perpetuates poverty and poverty influences illiteracy within the

United States.
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 3

!
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, “one in four ‘American’

children grow up without learning how to read” (Quarles, 2015). The social justice issue of

illiteracy impacts the United States marginalized residence, already living with many

oppressions. It further oppresses already marginalized populations, forcing them to fall into the

cycle of poverty without a way out. One must understand what literacy is in order to examine

illiteracy’s impact on these communities. The National Adult Literacy Survey, the country’s

largest adult literacy assessment project, funded by the federal government, defines literacy as,

“Using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to

develop one’s knowledge and potential” (Kirsch, 2002). This would include the ability to fully

understand the three levels of literacy:

prose literacy, the knowledge and skills needed to understand and use information

from editorials, news stories, poems, and fiction, document literacy, the

knowledge and skills required to locate and use information contained in

materials that include job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules,

maps, tables, and graphs, and quantitative literacy, the knowledge and skills

required to apply arithmetic operations (Kirsch, 2002).

People need to have proficient literacy skills to enjoy a successful life. Literacy can be the

difference between living within the cycle of poverty and earning a living wage. Without

literacy, a person’s future does not look promising. Throughout this essay, I will analyze the

impact illiteracy can have on a person’s life by looking at the impact of illiteracy in the United

States and its influence educationally, economically, and criminally, and how it can solve the

cycle of poverty that traps so many people.

Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 4

!
Populations experiencing illiteracy usually come from already marginalized groups.

Literacy becomes most prevalent for the economically marginalized: “47 percent of fourth

graders from low-income families read below the basic level, and by three years of age, there is a

30-million-word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families” (Reading Is

Fundamental, 2014). Because they can not afford the necessities needed to survive on their own,

because they can not read. This especially impacts minority groups within the United State’s

broken system. Communities whom the system racially oppresses have become behind in

literacy with, “50 percent of Black fourth graders scored below the basic level, as do 47 percent

of Hispanic and 49 percent of American Indian fourth graders” (Reading Is Fundamental, 2014).

The people whom the United States education, government, and social systems already maltreat

because of things out of their control, tend to be the population that experiencing illiteracy. As a

result of this, their quality of life worsens, furthering the gap between the haves and the have-

nots. The powerful tool of literacy can be used to create a successful life, but it can also be

destructive. Illiteracy traps people into the cycle of poverty in the United States, because of its

ability to educationally, economically, and criminally oppress a person, but being literate can

become a solution to the endless cycle of poverty. This endless cycle of illiteracy continues the

generations of a low economic status family.

The Begin to Read Foundation, whose main goal involves giving resources to parents

in low income communities about reading and writing in the home, states that “illiteracy is

passed along by parents who can not read or write” (Begin to Read, 2014). This continuation of

illiteracy through generations of a family means that the cycle of poverty will not stop unless

outside forces intervene. A huge portion of our students enter the education system behind.

According to recent data, “34 percent of children entering kindergarten lack the basic language
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 5

!
skills needed to learn how to read” (Reading Is Fundamental, 2014). Students who come into

kindergarten already behind have a harder time catching up. This happens in low income homes

because the parents can not read themselves, “44 million adults are now unable to read a simple

story to their children” (McWhirter, 2016). This impact could happen because they have to work

too many jobs so they have no time to work with their children, or do not have enough resources.

The most important missing resource in these homes are books with, “6 out of 10 households do

not buy a single book in a year” (McWhirter, 2016). All of this causes children to enter the

education system behind. This will drastically affect how well they do in school, especially when

placed in a school that does not have the resources needed to properly deal with their reading

insufficiencies.

One of the major problems with illiteracy involves making it extremely challenging to

succeed in the education system in the United States. Illiteracy creates a clear division between

the students who can complete their work because they have the necessary tool to complete any

activity in the classroom—reading —and the students who do not have the skill and therefore

can not reach their full potential. The division becomes greater the further a student goes into the

system, making it harder for them to stay caught up in class. According to Beginning to Read, a

non-profit organization that works with parents teaching their children how to read in their early

years,

if a child is not reading proficiently in the 4th grade, he or she will have

approximately a 78 percent change of not catch up and are four times likelier to

drop out of school” (Begin to Read, 2014).

Without having enough resources within the schools to help the child get past this road block

before they get to far into the system, they will not reach their full potential. These marginalized
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 6

!
students have an important voice to share and it needs to be heard, but because they can not

articulate it in the way the education system wants, as in reading and writing, it silences them.

This creates an injustice to those students. They, just as bright as the others, have little chance to

catching up, especially if they have not done so in their formative years. The most critical years,

when it comes to learning how to read and write, include the first three years of elementary

school. These three years, a student builds their foundation for reading and writing

comprehension. This foundation needs to be strong in order for a student to tackle more

advanced work (Reading Is Fundamental, 2014). Without this foundation, students lack the

necessary tool of being able to read directions, write papers, analyze text, take a written test, and

so much more. All of this causes them to fall even further behind in middle and high school, and

possibly drop out when they get to high school.

Students, who do not feel successful in school will likely drop out of high school,

especially when they lack literacy skills. With them not being able to read their text books and

take tests written for advanced literacy skills, they can not get good grades. This can be

detrimental to the student’s mental health. No person willingly wants to feel stupid and not good

enough. This feeling causes many students to struggle to even stay in school, along with the

many other problems they face at home. Drop out rates for high school students have become

ridiculously high: “more than 8,000 students quit high school every day, limiting their financial

potential and ability to become strong members of the workforce” (Reading Is Fundamental,

2014). By them not receiving their diploma, it will be almost impossible to get out of the cycle of

poverty. This means that these students can not create the type of life they want because they

lack a solid education to teach them the skills they need to work in the job market of the United
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 7

!
States. Illiterate students have a road block that they can not easily over come, especially when

looking at the many challenges living in poverty causes them to face.

Those who come from a low economic status have a higher risk of being illiterate.

Recent research, done by the USA government, about this correlation of illiteracy and poverty

has found that “between 46 and 51 percent of ‘American’ adults have an income well below the

poverty level because of their inability to read” (McWhirter, 2016). This direct connection

between the two factors, proves that illiteracy has become a major issue. Illiteracy in the USA,

has become an epidemic because “20 percent of “Americans” read below the level needed to

earn a living wage” (McWhirter, 2016). This large portion of the population involves not only

adults, but also the youth, with “50 percent of the unemployed between the ages of 16 and 21 can

not read well enough to be considered functionally literate” (McWhirter, 2016). Illiteracy

impacts all ages, particularly those who come from low income backgrounds. This large, nation

wide social injustice harms people’s lives along with the futures of their children. When

researching deeper impacts of illiteracy, one can consider the impact not having proficient skills

in reading, writing, and analyzing has on individuals – starting with jobs.

Most jobs today, in the USA marke,t involve some kind of literacy. This makes it

extremely difficult on those who do not have that skill. Illiteracy makes it hard to find a job

given that most people find theirs through the internet, social media, or the newspaper. One must

be able to access these things, and the need proficient literacy skills to do so. One needs literacy

skills to fill out an application and to read and agree with a contract. One must be able to read

and write their applications, resumes, cover letters, and negotiate the terms of the contract once

hired. This matters so the person has correct representation in the application process and fairly

treated once they start working. Adding another layer to this issue, daily tasks of most jobs
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 8

!
involve reading and writing. For example, taking inventory, filling out paperwork, filling out

incident reports, and so much more. All of this makes it very difficult to get the job in the first

place, but even harder to keep. With this illiteracy comes barriers towards advancement,

decreased productivity, inability to complete certain tasks and the possibility of termination. This

many not necessarily put the fault on person who experiences illiteracy. Many circumstances

cause people to become illiterate and they should not be unjustly treated because of it. This

illiteracy oppression will directly affect a person’s work and this will force them to stay in

poverty. One must have a job to make a living wage, and without literacy one will not be able to

do that. Literacy perpetuates poverty in the way it keeps a person from getting a job, and it can

also do the same to health care issues.

Literacy can have a direct impact on the health of people. Illiteracy limits a person’s

ability to understand, find, and apply for health related services (World Literacy Foundation,

2015). This means that they do not receive the health care they need to live a healthy life.

Illiteracy can make it very difficult to perform the many health care system tasks, starting with

applying for services. Without this skill, a person does not have the ability to read up on all of

the resources available to them, find out where to go to get services, and how to properly keep up

with the changes in the system. This all causes a person to have diminished health care

understanding and resources. Illiteracy can also impact how people use resources given to them.

Understanding medication impacts an important part of a person’s health and with

“approximately 50% of ‘Americans’ read so poorly that they are unable to perform simple tasks

such as reading prescription drug labels,” it seriously hinders one’s health (McWhirter, 2016).

This misuse has some very serious consequences on a person’s life. It could literally kill a

person, seriously harm them, make them sick, or cause them serious side affects. Another
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 9

!
resource that can cause issues when one experiences illiteracy happens when one visits a

hospital. Hospitals require filling out paperwork, understanding HIPPA laws, and reading

resource sheets. If one can not understand these three things, there can be self protection issues

and further health issues when the home treatment does not happen correctly. When one does not

have proficient literacy skills, it further marginalizes them because of their inability to

understand and use the resources within the health care system. This particular oppression

continues to keep people in poverty. If after care treatment issues arise, a person may not heal

properly and be unable to work. When one can not go to the doctor’s office because of the cost,

they might push it off until later, possibly not going until their ailment becomes irreversible. This

may cause them to become dependent on social services. These types of situations will keep

people trapped in a low economic status simply because they could not access and understand

the resources available and misunderstood the treatment directions. While in many instances

such as this, illiteracy leads to poverty, but poverty can also impact illiteracy.

When people get to a more extreme level of poverty, they have extra challenges to face,

including homelessness. Illiteracy and poverty make it harder to find and keep housing:

Out-of-home placement experiences (i.e., homeless shelter, institutional care,

foster care, placement with relatives, or group home care) often restrict children's

early literacy development and are associated with a higher number of behavioral

problems and school suspensions (Walker-Dalhouse, 2008, p. 84-86).

This ridiculous notion, that a system expects a student who does not know where they will sleep

for the night to be able to fully function during the school day, ruins a child’s education. A

kindergartener cares more about shelter, than memorizing the alphabet. These students can not

focus because of the worry about where they will be staying for the night, if it will be a safe
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 10

!
place, and will they be fed a good meal. All of this runs through their head, making it so they can

not concentrate well enough to learn how to read. A student’s basic needs must first be met

before they can worry about learning skills for the classroom. This inability to focus, affects the

grades the student will receive, causing them to fall further behind. That means that the student

probably will not catch up and possibly not receive their diploma. Without literacy skills and

diploma, they most likely will not get out of the housing problem they face, and instead stay

stuck in the cycle of poverty. This will not only affect the student within the classroom, but also

at home. The factor of not being given early literacy knowledge before school could also come

up in this situation. Guardians of students who experience housing insecurity usually do not have

time to work with their children to teach basic literary skills. With more pressing matters for

them to attend to, these students fall behind. These students want to learn; they just have more

pressing matters to deal with at home. Without extra resources, this will cause them to fall

behind in their literacy skills and eventually in the economic market as a whole.

Fundamental needs for USA residence include: education, work, health care, housing,

and literacy. Without them, one can not escape the poverty that traps them. Illiteracy, a symptom

of poverty, causes even more injustices for economically oppressed individuals. This clearly has

a very huge impact on the lives of the people experiencing illiteracy. Not only does illiteracy

impact those particular, illiterate individuals, but also everyone else within the United States.

Having such a huge portion of the United States population not being literate costs the

government a lot of money each year. It affects both those who experience illiteracy and those

who do not. Overall in the United States, “school dropouts cost our nation $240 billion in social

service expenditures and lost tax revenues” (McWhirter, 2016). This means that every year due

to students not getting the foundation of literacy skills they need in their early years; the United
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 11

!
States loses a substantial amount of money. When students can not read and write, they drop out

of high school. This drop out has a large price tag attached to it and that price tag directly affects

every resident in the United States. The impact of illiteracy does not end at the family involved,

it reaches further into society. It has negative economic effects on our government and therefore

every human being on United States soil. This along with all of the other economic factors stated

above come into play when looking at the impact of how being illiteracy forces people to stay in

economic despair, by not giving them an out. It has a further impact on many residents of the

United States when it comes to illiteracy’s impact on the criminal justice system.

Illiteracy and the criminal justice system directly correlate each other. A huge amount

of the inmate populations experiences illiteracy with: “3 out of 5 people in ‘American’ prisons

bot being able to read” (McWhirter, 2016). This drastically large amount of inmates, impacts the

system on two of its levels: juvenile and adult inmates. When it comes to juveniles, the direct

link between crime and illiteracy becomes clear. In a recent study, it was found that “nearly 85%

of the juveniles who face trial in the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate” (Quarles,

2015). These youths placed in the criminal justice system partially because they can not read and

therefore do not have a way out of the disparity they to live in. This continues to marginalize

them as they grow into adulthood. When looking at the adult system, illiteracy’s impact startles

with: “more than 60% of all inmates are functionally illiterate, with over 70 percent not reading

above a fourth grade level” (Quarles, 2015). This means that illiteracy continues to affect peoples

lives as they get older. Illiteracy has become part of the reason why these adults become apart of

the prison system. Illiteracy can push people to resort to crime to survive the broken systems in

the United States, and the amount of people within the criminal system reflects that.
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 12

!
Less people would be in the juvenile and adult criminal systems if they were taught

how to properly read and write from a young age. When looking at the two systems together, we

can see overpopulations in prisons. Instead of fixing this problem at its rout cause of illiteracy,

the United States builds more jails to imprison more people. It has gone to the point where the

government chooses,

to determine how many prison beds will be needed in future years, some states

actually base part of their projection on how well current elementary students are

performing on reading tests in fourth grade (McWhirter, 2016).

This means that the government feeds into the cycle of oppression because it recognizes how

huge of a correlation crime and illiteracy have, and it does not intercede into the problem.

Instead, the government perpetuates the problem by building more prisons in the areas where

illiterately marginalized communities live. Instead of using that knowledge to help better these

communities’ literacy skills, the system pushes them into becoming even more marginalized.

When a person can not find or keep a job because they can not read, and they need to pay their

bills or feed their family, crime may be the only way to do that. This causes many people to end

up in the court system because they were never taught how to read sufficiently by fourth grade.

With this comes the reality that this adds another level of oppression onto people who can not

read, the impact of being labeled as a convict. This label makes it extremely hard to start a new

life once out of prison, especially if one can not read. This makes a person extremely

disadvantage and unable to survive on their own because of these oppressions placed on them.

With this, they will either be forced to resort to crime, or receive government assistance. Either

way they stay stuck in the cycle of poverty. This relationship between criminal imprisonment
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 13

!
and illiteracy creates a huge injustice. The best way to end this injustice involves giving people

the tool they need, literacy skills.

Literacy can be used as a tool to solve poverty in the United States. As the World

Literacy Project, a nonprofit whose involves,

[lifting] children and youth out of poverty by delivering effective and sustainable

programs aimed at eradicating illiteracy -- perfectly explains -- there is a

correlation between illiteracy and income at least in individual economic terms, in

that literacy has payoffs and is a worthwhile investment. As the literacy rate

doubles, so doubles the per capita income (World Literacy Foundation, 2015).

With this knowledge of how literacy can help solve for poverty, one now must find ways to

enhance literacy. Many things can be done to help improve literacy in the United States, staring

with education reform. By creating a more equitable education system that reaches the needs of

the marginalized students, there will be higher reading and writing scores in the schools. The

programs would start during the first four years of school. By doing this, the problem fixes itself

before becoming irreversible. For the best impact, the USA should implement specialized

programs that take into account: race, economic status, housing issues, hunger, and immigration

status. By looking at all of these factors and catering to the specific needs of these communities,

people will have the literacy skills needed to use it as a tool to improve their status. While this

approach focuses on the proactive, reactive options also exist. One reactive possibility involves

creating more adult services in communities where high rates of illiteracy exist. This would

mean providing classes, representatives to help people fill out applications and forms, and other

resources to help those who do not have the abilities to receive the services they need. Another

resource involves creating literacy programs in juvenile detention centers and prisons. This
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 14

!
builds a free service for inmates to gain the much needed skill for when they get released. These

options, just a few of many, can help give people the much needed skill of literacy.

A lot of the factors of illiteracy mentioned above, once alleviated can have huge impact

on a person’s life. Literacy gives a person the opportunity to succeed, to get out of the cycle of

poverty. It solves the cycle of poverty in the USA. It will create a more educated society, that in

return will allow for a better society. Less children fall behind in school to the point of not

catching up or dropping, failing, or getting kicked out of school. This creates larger amount of

skilled workers, better prepared for the workforce. With this, more people will get a job and keep

the job because they can communicate in the necessary ways. This causes less instances of

poverty, so children will not have to go hungry, unable to focus in school. People can now get

the heath care services they need. The prisons populations will go down. The nation’s spending

of money that relates to illiteracy will go down, making government spending less. All of this

can happen with a lot of hard work, education reform, reading and writing services for adults,

literacy programs in prisons, and many more possibilities. By increasing literacy across the entire

nation, the gap between the haves and the have-nots will shrink. Marginalized communities will

have a tool to continue the fight to receive equity in all levels of society. By giving people the

tool of literacy, they can drastically change their lives for the better.
Literacy: The Instrumental Tool to Curving Poverty 15

!
Bibliography

Begin to Read. (2014). Literacy Statistics. Retrieved February 18, 2016, from WriteExpress

Corporation website: http://www.begintoread.com/research/literacystatistics.html

Bell, R. (2013, February 23). Hungry Children at Risk of Poor School Performance.

Retrieved February 18, 2016, from Michigan State University: Extension

website: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/hungry_children_at_higher_risk_of_poor_sc

hool_performance

Kirsch, I. S., Jungeblut, A., Jenkins, L., & Kolstad, A. (2002, April). Adult Literacy in

America: A First Look at the Findings of the National Adult Literacy Survey. Retrieved February

18, 2016, from The National Center for Education Statistics Website:

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93275.pdf

McWhirter, J. (2016). Staggering Illiteracy Statistics. Retrieved February 18,

2016, from Literacy Project Foundation website:

http://literacyprojectfoundation.org/community/statistics

Quarles, D. (2015). 11 Facts About Literacy in America. Retrieved February 18,

2016, from Do Something website: https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11facts-about-

literacy-america

Reading Is Fundamental (Ed.). (2014). Literacy Facts & Stats. Retrieved February

18, 2016, from RIF website: http://www.rif.org/pdf/Literacy-Facts-Stats.pdf

Walker-Dalhouse, D., & Risko, V. J. (2008). Homelessness, Poverty, and Children's

Literacy Development. The Reading Teacher, 62(1), 84-86.

World Literacy Foundation (Ed.). (2015, August 24). The Economic & Social Cost of

Illiteracy: A Snapshot of Illiteracy in a Global Context. Retrieved February 18, 2016 from,

World Literacy Foundation website: http://worldliteracyfoundation.org/wp-

content/uploads/2015/02/WLF-FINAL-ECONOMIC-REPORT.pdf