Book Reviews

Abstract

I will do my best to shape a vision and refine a definition of that universal humane literacy which has eluded us so long but which represents a sane, essential, and realistic goal for a society that hopes to govern not by the mechanical and docile aquiescence of the governed but by the informed consent of those who are empowered to participate with the act of governance itself, (p. 12)The juxtaposition of these goals is a model demonstration of the strengths, ambitions, tensions, and problems inherent to this book. In places, Kozol writes clearly, insightfully, and often accurately about adult illiteracy. In the next paragraph or page, however, the pendulum of Kozol's attention is likely to swing to philosophical or political rhetoric. Kozel switches from objective presenter of information to strident political rhetoritician seemingly at will. This requires a certain wariness on the part of the reader who may not be sure when he is being given legitimate information and when he is being manipulated and persuaded.This tension between book as information provider and book as political persuader exists from the moment the reader first sets eyes on the cover. For example, a somber gray block on the red, white, and blue cover proclaims to the casual browser that "One out of every three adult Americans cannot read this book." This is accurate information and may even be conservative given Kozol's tendency to cite James Joyce, W. H. Auden, and to use 66-word sentences like the one quoted above. Less than one third of adults are college educated and this book is written for an educated audience. The cover and much of the book, however, create the inaccurate impression that illiteracy per se is rampant. Kozel claims there are 60 million illiterate American adults. This figure is within the range of "functional" and "marginal" illiterates identified in the Adult Performance Level (APL) study of the early 1970s (Northcutt, 1973). 172 Journal of Reading BehaviorAccording to most studies, including the APL, only a small fraction of these 60 million adults are "illiterate" in the commonly accepted sense of being unable to read a word. Perhaps 10% read below the World War II draft cut-off of a fourth-grade level. When Kozol highlights case studies to bring data to life and give statistics political reality, he paints poignant portraits of real suffering and real people from the bottom 10% of the 60 million adults. He creates an impression of a nation of virtual illiterates. Yet, most of these 60 million can read somewhere between fourth-and ninth-grade levels-levels that were socially acceptable a few decades ago.Because difficulty levels of reading materials on the job and throughout daily life have climbed, there is a painful gap between current literacy demands and the education levels of this fourth-to ninth-grade level group of adults. This is a major educational and social problem but one somewhat more complex than can be conveyed by a general statistic or blanket label. There are people who can justifiably be called il...

The Correlation between Students’ Vocabulary Mastery and Reading Comprehension of Students at SMA Negeri 13 Makassar

“…Practice in scanning will help you learn to skip over unimportant words so that you can read faster. According to Mikulecky & Jeffries (1996) scanning is a technique that is recommended. We are all familiar with what a scanner is and how it works.…”

Writing Summary as An Alternative Strategy To Comprehend The Text

“…Writing summary is a strategy requires students to rewrite or outline only the important parts of a passage or a text. According to (Mikulecky & Jeffries, 2004) , summarizing is the process of retelling the important parts of a passage in a much shorter form. Summarizing is a strategy in which readers sort through the information presented in a text in order to pull out and paraphrase the essential ideas.…”