A Fifth of American Adults Struggle to Read. Why Are We Failing to Teach Them? – By Annie Waldman, Aliyya Swaby, Anna Clark and Nicole Santa Cruz (ProPublica) / Dec 14, 2022
The nation’s approach to adult education has so far neglected to connect the millions of people struggling to read with the programs set up to help them.
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
In Amite County, Mississippi, where a third of adults struggle to read, evidence of America’s silent literacy crisis is everywhere.
It’s in a storefront on Main Street, in the fading mill town of Gloster, where 80-year-old Lillie Jackson helps people read their mail. “They can’t comprehend their bills,” she said. “So many of them are ashamed that they haven’t finished grade school.” She longs for the day she can retire, but she doesn’t want to abandon her neighbors. “That’s the only reason I really stay open,” she said.
It’s in the Greentree Lumber mill, where dozens of residents cut Southern yellow pine into boards, but supervisors — who must be able to page through machine guides and safety manuals — are recruited from other counties. “We’re going to have demand for jobs with no people to supply them,” mill accountant Pam Whittington said.
CONTINUE > https://www.propublica.org/article/literacy-adult-education-united-states
