do you know what blows my mind?

[SHATOUSHKA]

adult illiteracy....

now lets not get all gay and self-righteous
here... this isn't too terribly serious of
a topic... but i know a guy that is illiterate
(yeah...) and it boggles my mind at what a
handicap it must be for him.

literate people MUST take reading for granted
because as i sat thinking about what a
handicap it must be for him... i realized
just how much text i see in the average
day... and NOT including the internet.

i also wonder what type of thought must
go through someone's mind that, in facing
all of that average text, you decide you
cannot learn to read (for whatever reason).

i prefaced this post with the 'its not a
serious post' comment because i'd really
prefer if this thread went without all the
adult illiteracy bandwagon zealots....

i'm SURE its difficult... i'm SURE its
gotta be a punch to the self-esteem...

but i just can't understand why someone
facing so many crippling challenges can
make it for 20, 30, 40+ years on this
earth (in america) without having the
will to learn to read. (and we have to admit
that after a certain point... it is up
to you to get it done).

so yeah... it boggles my mind.... and to a
point it even pisses me off... because i
don't understand why someone would just
prefer to remain illiterate.

[GravyTrain]

i'm illiterate...i just assume that the posts i make on hostboard make sense....i can't read the replies to those posts, so i don't know if it is working or not....

but seriously...i'm going to have to agree....it seems ridiculous to me that someone can't read at all. i can understand struggling with reading, that is completely acceptable considering our education system now, and even 40 years ago. but how someone can go for so long without being able to read just doesn't make sense. how some people are able to graduate from high school and be in that situation, i don't see how it is done....but it is...

[zelazny]

Y'know, i wonder how you get through school whilst being illiterate? (Not sure what kind of school you call it, but the one where you're in after kindergarten.) Wouldn't it be noticed? Or how on earth can you actually do your homework or read any of the questions when you do a test?

[Genie!]

Shatzy:
(and we have to admit
that after a certain point... it is up
to you to get it done).

<font size="4" face="Tempus Sans ITC, Tahoma">I STRONGLY agree with you there. Do illiterate people actually expect people who can read to come up and beg the illiterate person to let them teach them how to read? Do illiterate people think they are "America's Lost cause"? THEY, need to make the first step and depend on themselves first to come forward and say "I need help". Illiteracy is like AIDS. Nobody can tell just by looking at you whether you can read or not just like nobody can tell just by looking at someone whether they have Aids or not. It can not be up to the people who can read to come up to the person who can't and take their hand and say I'm gonna teach ya how to read.
It is totally up to the illiterate person to help themselves. They either want to be able to read or they don't. Now, I'm sure alot of them do nto come forward because they feel embaressed by it. But I think they need to ask themselves, what's more important swallowing my pride and getting help or barely getting by the rest of my life knowing I can't read.

And Zelany, you'd be very surprised how many schools & teachers do not catch illiterate and dyslexic students. I've heard about so many students who "slip" through the system who are either dyslexic or illiterate and nobody ever catches it. Now, is that the student's fault for not bringing it to the teachers attention, or is that the teachers fault for not catching it when she is the one who is suppose to be a teacher? A guide, an aid to education?

<font color="#5b5b5b" size="1">[ December 07, 2004 12:15 PM: Message edited by: Genie_thegiggler ]</font>