Illiteracy in America

After reading Hedge’s article, “America the Illiterate,” I am quite disturbed by the facts and figures that he presented. I have somewhat of an awareness of the poverty that is present in our country today, but I had no idea it was as bad as what Hedge projects. Although, I am not very surprised at my reaction, because I have not really been exposed to very many people in poverty throughout my life thus far. I was knocked off of my feet at the statistic that only twenty percent of adults in America have high school diplomas. It is hard for me to believe. This may sound very cliché, but article has made me appreciate the fact that I have been blessed with a high school education, not to mention a college education and possibly even a further education past the college level.

I do question one specific part of Hedge’s article. When he compares presidential speech levels over time, I do not really see the connection to the rest of the article. I was under the impression that the article was about the amount of illiteracy in America. Why should it matter how the literacy of our nation’s leaders is changing over time, at least in the context of this article. And furthermore, I don’t really see the point in classifying the way that our presidential candidates speak in a debate based on a grade level. As time goes on, language changes. For this reason, I do not think that it is plausible to compare someone’s speech skills of today’s generation someone’s of 150 years ago.

When comparing Hedge’s article to Carr’s article, there are definitely some similarities and differences. Both articles are making the audience aware of problems or potential problems that our society faces today. However, I feel that Hedge is bringing about a little more serious of a problem. I do seem to see a theme in each of the writers’ viewpoints: if they can create more awareness of problems that our society is facing, that may be the first step in solving the problems.