Illiteracy: An American Tragedy

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Illiteracy is still prevalent here in the United States. The U.S Department of Education reported “there are 27million adult Americans who have left school due to their inability to read and write.” “Based on assessments of adult literacy in the United States, about 47%, or 90 million, of American adults have literacy skills that test below a high-school level and are unable to read complex texts, including many health-related materials.”

(Low health literacy is high among Americans- Am J Health-Syst-Pharm)

Because of the lack of awareness, it still remains to go unnoticed. But what are the effects on illiteracy for our century now? The effects are deprivation of an everyday life.

They miss important things, which most of us take for granted. The morning newspaper, greeting cards, or even the special notes our family sends us thru the email. Imagine walking down the street, and not being able to read the signs of a bill-board; it can be very frustrating. They are isolated from the world. They do not know how to reach out for assistance.

Statistics shows, the majority of th...

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