I would like to comment on the article on Functional Illiteracy which appeared in Thursday’s issue of your newspaper. The problem of students at both the high school and college levels affected by this phenomenon is growing at an alarming rate. It is not only the result of too much TV watching, but also the increasing popularity of the internet, twittering, texting and other social net working sites such as Facebook and You-tube. The goal is to get your message across in as few words as possible. Research has shown that of the more than 15,000 words in the English dictionary the average high school graduate in the USA uses less than 200 while the average college graduate makes use of about 400.What’s ironic is that with all these new avenues of written communication available, one would expect an increase of functional literacy, but when the young people express themselves overwhelmingly with such terms as “like” and “whatever” they limit the extent to which they can expand their literary awareness and knowledge. Another factor is that most of the communication on these modern devices consist of idle gossip and the pursuit of relatively useless information.
To blame teachers for the problem is simply an attempt to scape goat teachers, for what is an issue that all parents should handle. They need to monitor their children’s use of social networking devices, promote reading, and turn off the TV.