PERSPECTIVES
Friday, June 12, 1987
The Michigan Daily
Page 7
a-
Can you read this headline? Millions in U.S. can't
By Warren E. Burger and
Edward M. Kennedy
An idea has been presented to
Congress that is worth trying in the
battle against illiteracy: to create a
Literacy Corps that will enable
college students to volunteer for a
few hours a week as assistant
teachers for students in nearby
publi schools or other institutions
in return for college credit.
We pride ourselves on being an
"advanced nation," but illiteracy in
America is at a level no nation
should tolerate. Vast numbers of
Americans lack the basic reading
skills to function in society.
According to an estimate, twenty
three million citizens over the age
of 18 cannot read the poison
warning on a can of pesticide or a
package of cigarettes, the headline
of a daily newspaper, or a letter
from their child's teacher. An
additional thirty five million are
} semi-literate, reading so poorly that
they barely function at a survival
level. That makes 58 million
adults, roughly a third of the
nation's population over 18, whom
our system of education failed in
their adolescent years and who are
functionally illiterate today. The
result is a massive problem of
illiteracy that costs the nation
heavily in welfare and
unemployment, industrial accidents
and lost productivity, and dead-end
lives of crime and drugs. Illiteracy
is also a threat to our constitutional
system: how can a functional
illiterate really understand that
system or defend it effectively?
Even if some of these figures are
overstated, at best the picture is
bleak.
A recent study complained that
America has slipped behind Japan
in the quality of education, but the
truth is, we have slipped behind 47
other countries, too. America ranks
49th in literacy among the 159
countries of the world!
So far, we have not addressed
this problem very effectively. The
Federal Government spends billions
of dollars every year on education,
but only a pittance is targeted on
illiteracy. In fact, total spending on
illiteracy in the United States
reaches only about four percent of
those who need help. The National
Advisory Council on Adult
Education estimates that we would
need to spend five billion dollars -
fifty times more than is allocated
today - to have a significant
impact on the problem through
costly traditional programs.
New spending of that magnitude
is out of the question because of the
federal deficit. The challenge is to
persuade America to do more
without spending more. That is a
tall order, but it is not impossible
- which is where Literacy Corps
would come in.
Pilot projects at the University
of Miami and St. John's University
in New York City, relying so far
on corporate donations, have made a
start that provides a pattern. The
results of these modest efforts are
so compelling that the time has
come for a national effort.
Legislation pending in Congress
seeks $127 million over the next
two years to launch Literacy Corps
projects at approximately a
thousand colleges and universities
across the country. The bill will
provide start-up grants of about
$25,000 per college to cover the
initial administrative costs of
campus programs.
Participating college students
would sign up for electives offered
by their colleges and taught by their
professors in semester-long courses
comparable to those in "clinical
legal education" at many law
schools, although the focus of the
Literacy Corps would be very
different. As part of the course,
college students would be given
instruction on how to tutor in
reading. In addition to teaching in
local elementary and high schools,
Literacy Corps participants could
also tutor in Head Start centers,
institutions for the disabled, adult
continuing education programs,
jails, or other facilities where
supervised classroom-type settings
are available.
In a typical ten-week semester,
each college student in the program
would provide 60 hours of tutoring.
If a thousand colleges participated,
100,000 or more students might
join the Literacy Corps, and a very
large amount of tutoring could be
generated over the next two years.
In addition to tackling the
problem of illiteracy, a Literacy
Corps has another benefit -
harnessing the idealism, and
volunteerism, and the commitment
of young Americans. So far,
initiatives in this area have been
stymied by the high price of
conventional proposals such as a
National Service Corps or ROTC-
type scholarships or loan-
forgiveness programs for students
willing to commit themselves to a
period of post-graduate public
service.
We believe a Literacy Corps has
all the potential for today that
President Kennedy's Peace Corps
had in the 1960s. Young
Americans in this generation are as
ready, willing and eager to respond
to the challenge of public service as
their parents were a generation ago,
when President Kennedy urged them
to "Ask not what your country can
do for you - ask what you can do
for your country."
If colleges and universities
across the country respond by
accepting the Literacy Corps as part
of their educational process,
students will have the opportunity
to participate by many thousands
and America may at last begin to
deal in more effective and affordable
ways with the shameful and
festering problem of illiteracy in
our midst.
One final point - the Literacy
Corps is not a new idea. It is based
on a model conceived in 1969 by an
unusually creative private citizen,
Norman Manasa of Washington,
D.C., who has been knocking on
many doors for the better part of a
decade seeking support for the
concept. Manasa now heads the
Washington Education Project,
which is seeking broader corporate
financing for the idea if
Congressional action is too slow.
In 1984, Manasa wrote a very
readable paperback elaborating on
the program called "The
Washington Education Project, Inc.
- or How You Can Get A Tutor
For Your Kid, Just Like Rich
People." It may not be on the best-
seller lists today, but it deserves to
be on the shelves of every college
bookstore in the country - and
perhaps it will be. The Literacy
Corps is an idea whose time is
overdue.
Warren E. Burger is aformer Chief
Justice of the United States and the
current chair of the Commission on
the United States Constitution.
Edward M. Kennedy is the senior
Democratic Senator from Massa -
chusetts.
LETTERS:
To the Daily:
Amnesty International Group 61
of Ann Arbor is participating in an
internalizing campaign on human
rights violations in Iran. The organ -
ization has recently published a
report documenting the abuse of
fundamental rights in the Islamic
Republic of Iran.
Universally acknowledged
standards of justice required that no
one be imprisoned without a trial,
with legal representation for the
accused. However, since 1979,
Amnesty International researchers
have not found even one trial for a
political crime in which the accused
was allowed to have a defense
attorney. People who have been
tried before the Islamic
Revolutionary Courts have not
been allowed to present evidence or
witnesses in their defense, and have
been imprisoned, and in some cases
executed, without everknowing the
} charges against them. Some people
have been imprisoned simply
because a suspected relative could
not be found.
Thousands of men and women
have been executed in Iran. These
executions have frequently taken
place after summary trials which
lasted only a few minutes. Several
of the people who were shot, hung,
or stoned to death were under 18
years old.
Torture is forbidden by
international human rights
standards. In Iran, the torture of
political detainees has been routine
and widespread. The torture usually
begins shortly after arrest and is
aimed at extracting information or a
confession or a renunciation of
belief. Amnesty International is
also concerned about cruel and
degrading punishments, such as
flogging and amputation of limbs.
Amnesty International has called
on the government of Iran to take
specific steps to end the human
rights abuses:
1) Introduce and enforce a fixed
limit to incommunido detention for
all political detainees. Ensure that
they have access to a lawyer of their
choice, in addition to relatives and
medical treatment when necessary,
as well as the chance to challenge
their detention in court.
2) Conduct a thorough invest -
igation into all reports of torture,
with the goal of prosecuting anyone
responsible for torture and compen -
sating the victims.
3) Stop all judicial punishments
that are prohibited by international
human rights standards, such as
execution, amputation of limbs,
crucifixion, and flogging, and
replace them by more humane alter -
natives.
Out of a sense of shared
humanity with the victims of
human rights abuses, we appeal to
the government of Iran to end
torture, executions, and arbitrary
imprisonment.
-Brandy R. Sinco
Amnesty International
Group 61
June 2
back by popular demand
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