Literacy: Mirror of Society

Abstract

Functional illiteracy among students and graduates today is a grave concern of parents, educators, employers, and others. Literacy is a function of society, and among the most powerful of its social determinants are family and home, peer groups, the school, and the mass media. The social ferment in America during the past few decades, the recent predilection for oral communication, and the propagation of mass language have all had an impact on verbal proficiency. So have the reduced exposure to good books, the fewer opportunities of the young to hear and participate in conversations with adults, and the general laxity in social behavior, in moral values, and in linguistic and academic standards. So long as literacy is de-emphasized, devalued, and uncompensated, young people will have little incentive to learn to master the arts of speaking, reasoning, reading, and writing. Any improvement in the state of literacy will therefore await its restoration to a position of respect and reward. The fate of our nation, bound up as it is with the state of literacy, will depend on whether we effect that restoration.