European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 23, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                July 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 modern living 27 million americans read and can by Patti Bond United press International millions of american parents Are crippling their children with a legacy that will affect them the rest of their lives its called illiteracy and the disease is figures compiled by the coalition for literacy show 27 million americans cannot read and write and another 47 million Are Only marginally that Means 74 million adults cannot comprehend a Job a prescription Poison warnings or this and million More americans join that category every Pauley staff director for the Senate education said she believes the problem is a failure of both the Home and the school to help the parents dont spend much time with the kids and then when they get to they dont have any they Are slower than some of the other kids and get turned off they May have teachers that Arent very Good said having a Good teacher with a solid program obviously makes a big and being Able to go Home and have your parents help you with this stuff makes All the difference in the but the illiterate cannot or will not help their children because they Are afraid of being found they hide their Handicap out of shame and fear that they will be taken advantage of if you cant overcome a disadvantaged says Peter executive director of the Laubach literacy program in if the parents Are the kids Are not Likely to be he even though Good teaching pro Grams May help students get parents must communicate that literacy and learning Are Joyce an associate professor of education at Tarelton University in says illiterate parents May be afraid of becoming involved in their Childs education because they had negative experiences in school they May never have been successful she children of literate parents see that their parents value literacy and As a result the children Are More motivated to want to become but when parents Are they Are not in a position to do much with their said a life Eddeath crisis finally motivated a 42yearold Mother of two to Call a literacy group for the on could not help her Chil Dren with read them simple bedtime stories or decipher a note from a like millions of other illiterate she would Call the school and Tell them their note was lost or damaged and ask them to Tell her what they the woman overcame her fear of exposure when she accidentally fed her daughter Pink Dis washing thinking it was pesto she stayed up night after night to see the literacy group Telephone number be cause she could copy Only one number at a for Many socioeconomic status was identified As the major Factor influencing student in recent Many researchers have found that Home literacy environment is More wrote Melton in her dissertation at Indiana As time goes illiterate adults Are not fully Able to seek new knowledge and As a they have less information to share with their without this knowledge and the ability to these parents May not be Able to provide children with natural learning experiences which occur through daily wrote illiterate parents Are very particularly in relating with teachers because they recall negative experiences from school and fear their secret will be unseen and trapped by their own illiterates Are afraid to complain and unsure where to turn for America cannot afford to ignore the government figures show illiteracy costs the country billion annually in welfare and Pris on Upkeep and lost the coalition for literacy estimates the Cost to tax payers to support the illiterate population with welfare and unemployment is if you want to add lost taxes into the it could just get said Erica an aide to Edward what this is doing to our society is really Zirinksy is the sponsor of a Bill to set up a commis Sion to study the causes of were adding million adult illiterates every were spending billions every year and the problem is int it time to find out whats causing the problem its getting away from she were 49th in literacy level among the 158 countries of the United that on the level of a devel Oping and there Are some who think were even further Down than Kenney Gault says Congress has reauthorized a million appropriation for the next four years to help National literacy programs for 60 million the need is she if you want to try to meet the you could end up spending maybe billion a the need is so great that you could triple fund these programs and still not meet the but that not possible at the other Federal programs Are but not directly for adult the Federal role in education is limited to a certain states and localities have the major responsibility for she Zorinsky Bill would study the causes for i lit focusing on teacher training arid elementary Edu most literacy action directors believe the needs of both adults and children should be addressed during hearings on the subject of fault said she heard from Many Young mothers who went into the program because they could not read to their they were successful graduates and they said they Al ready see a difference in their their own Pride at being Able to read was recognized by their said no longer was this going to be a family problem of there would be a break in the Waite says the problem is not just but its results unemployment and general health and safety it has a substantial effect on this Var ious social ills clearly have links to Barbara the wife of vice president George is Active in the literacy she estimates that it costs billion to keep illiterate in mates in that figure includes Only those whose incarceration can be directly linked to they could not even fill out an application for a sixty percent of the prison population cannot read above Grad school the billion does not include swelling Law enforcement budgets and court nor does it take into account the personal losses of victims of the business sector is a big Low extra supervisory absenteeism and poor product Quality Are some of the problems businesses face with their illiterate percentages of functionally Illi americans age 18 and older by age group 40 30 20 10 1829 3039 4049 5059 60 and older by sex 25 20 15 10 5 0 by act 60 50 40 30 20 10 0  lacking the Tcilia for function such m writing t or