Improved literacy is key to future

A new crisis of emergency exists in this country.

It is not the threat of nuclear war or a communist takeover. It is worse than that: Alarming numbers of American school children cannot read.

According to the Sept. 27, 1998 edition of the Los Angeles Times, four out of 10 fourth graders cannot attain basic reading skills.

In California, six out of 10 cannot read competently. This is extremely discouraging and downright pathetic.

Without reading, one cannot keep up with changing lanes to a freeway exit, let alone get ahead in this country. Symptoms of illiteracy are obvious: Poverty, low self-confidence, drug and alcohol abuse. The list goes on and on.

Teachers, obviously, need to be better trained to deal with this problem.

However, a simple quick-fix approach will not cut it. Using phonics with no reading-based course or vice versa does not address every child.

A curriculum must be flexible and integrate different strategies for different children. It will also take time and patience, especially from the public.

In Houston, according to the Times, teachers are required to allot 90 minutes of classroom time specifically for reading instruction and practice.

If this is what is needed to raise illiteracy, then it needs to be done.

Emergency teachers, unfortunately, are often employed because of school shortages.

To combat this, teachers need to understand and follow a reading-focused curriculum. They should also be closely monitored, with no problems.

If problems do arise, they need to be addressed and fixed. In an era of the Internet, ATM banking and capitalism, there is no room for faulty teachers. Raising teaching wages and letting competition decide who stays and who goes would be a solution for this problem.

Also, it would help to take into account environmental factors and one-parent households in scoring tests.

Children who are still falling behind in reading should be required to receive after school help.

While this requires more funding, it is well worth the results.

This country's future leaders should at least have the skills to sound out an unfamiliar world leader's name.

Parents should also read to their children or at least try to play word games with them.

Unfortunately, in many households, it is not always an option. Work, not having the time or simply not caring, provide numerous problems for parents.

Still, at least an hour or even half an hour of their time could be put to good use by simply reading to their children.

In the final analysis, it is still the school's responsibility to make sure children learn how to read.

What is the use of education if it does not educate? The days of pushing children through lower grades are over.

Low self-confidence or not, children need reading skills to survive in today's materialistic society.

Without them, a bright and wide open future becomes a very grim and narrow path.

Wes Woods is a journalism major at CSULB.