European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 24, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Hoe be rom. By a a Kwh 883 awk Kew of fat vyv ii functional illiteracy what makes the printed Page an enemy by Lee Mitgang associated press ninth grader Jennie jiggled her leg nervously As Reading specialist Marvin coh asked her to read a paragraph any fourth grader should have found easy. She blazed through the passage seemingly effortlessly in just 22 seconds. Minutes later Cohn asked her to read it aloud. She read fluently so flawlessly in act it would have been hard to guess she barely understood what the words meant but when Cohn gently questioned her it was Clear she had t comprehended what she d just read. The Story of Jennie not her real name is one of the most common in american schools today. She defies easy categories. She has Normal intelligence. Nothing is physically wrong with her brain no dyslexia or other learning  she knows the letters of the alphabet and How they sound. Her vocabulary is at least average. Jennie like untold million of others across the United states simply cannot comprehend what she reads. Her Confidence Withers when she faces the written word. She lacks the will or the attention Span to study or do Homework. She fails her courses. Since Jennie lives in an affluent Community where the average child s 10 is 120 and most go on to College her Reading problems make her feel isolated depressed and inadequate. Her parents Don t know whether to get Tough or ease off. Kids like Jennie often become the problem students. Kids like Jennie often drop out. A generation ago Rudolph Flesch Shook up . Educators with his Book. Why Johnny can t read in which he argued that America s Reading problems could be solved if Only schools taught More phonics the method by which students decode words through the sounds of letters and combinations of letters but Cohn who Heads the Reading clinic at Adelphi University in Garden City n.y., and other experts believe the nation has Many More Jennies than johnnies to worry about. The great majority of children will learn the mechanics of Reading satisfactorily. But Many will fail to become very expert at comprehending what they read and Many won t Ever find Reading a pleasurable activity said Richard Anderson. That is at least As important or More important than decoding  Anderson is director of the University of Illinois Center for the study of Reading and chairman of the commission on Reading which last year published a landmark report becoming a nation of readers Reading problems might seem of minor concern in the United states where the 1980 census indicated 99 percent of americans were basically literate that is could read and write simple messages. But various researchers who have studied functional literacy defined As the ability to function in society estimate 16 million to 27 million adult americans Are functionally illiterate. At some Point Early in Many americans lives the printed Page becomes an enemy. Just Why this happens defies such easy answers As Lack of phonics instruction or learning disabilities. A combination of factors can be at fault but most Are tied to a child s environment at Home and at school parents who let the to drone on for hours parents who push too hard or teachers who Lack the expertise to help children before budding Reading problems destroy their Confidence. Veteran Reading clinicians like Paula Pattschull of the University of Denver say that Only a tiny portion of clients perhaps 2 percent has serious trouble decoding or sounding out words. Some experts argue that cases like that of 15-year-old Jennie suggest some disturbing things As the nation grapples with its Reading problems. First the perennial often virulent debate among scholars and policymakers Over the merits of using phonics to teach Reading is distracting the Public from More Subtle More difficult and far More widespread Reading problems. It presents the false Hope that if we just taught phonics right everything would fall into place Anderson said. Second educators psychologists and others May have grown Hasty in classifying children like Jennie learning  Kenneth a. Martyn a former Dean of California state University and now president of a multistage Chain of profit making Reading centers called the Reading game put it More bluntly that is the most intense cop out we have in education  the number of youngsters classified As learning disabled has grown rapidly. In 1976-77, there were 797,213 such children about 1.79 percent of All youngsters enrolled in school. The number More than doubled to 1,811,489, or 4.57 percent of total enrolment in 1983-64, the latest Federal statistics available. All this can Lead parents astray As they try to help solve their youngsters Reading problems. Reading clinicians like Cohn say they be noticed that parents increasingly demand a definite diagnosis such As dyslexia and tend to be less patient with fuzzier women Are now the majority in professions the barriers have fallen now York times illustration new York times arking a major shift the . Labo department has reported that women it hold the majority of professional jobs in the United slates after edging out men 29,000 jobs in february. This Isa historic Milestone said Samuel m. Ehrenhalt commissioner of the new York Region of the Bureau of lat statistics  the professional workers in this  men s traditional dominance of some professions such As Medicine Law and engineering continues Ehrenhalt said. But women have made sufficient Gall those Fields Over the last several years to gain the majority in february in the nearly 50 professional occupations surveyed by the Bureau he said. Women had been close to making up 50 percent of the professional Job Market for several months. Once in apr8 1985, they Valneda majority of 35,000 jobs Ehrenhalt so but they lost it the next month. It was not until this february aflertwomonthsatmorelhan49percent, f gained the majority and appeared on the Way to beco lit a solid  Ehrenhalt said. I in the last three months men had been hanging of. A majority by a hair but in february they lost that Haf he said. I think the numbers of women in profession occupations Are going to continue climbing As the 1 months and years go  women surpassed men in february in a few professions Long dominated by men. There Are now j More female psychologists statisticians and editors a reporters for example. J women also continued to gain jobs in professional Fields defined by the labor department As knowledge based occupations where they have always been dominant such As nursing and teach i the lingering sexism that is present in the world work today is not going to be Able to persist when Page 14 the stars and stripes