| Janitors have been fired because they cannot read an | | | | nations. |
| after-hours note with special clean-up instructions. | | | | The Solution to Illiteracy |
| Families have been evicted from their apartment when | | | | Linguists tell us that Dr. Johnson made a very serious |
| the apartment owner falsely claimed that the rental | | | | linguistic error in preparing his dictionary in 1755. Instead |
| contract allows eviction if a crying baby disturbs other | | | | of freezing the spelling of the sounds of the English |
| tenants; the evicted tenants do not object fearing their | | | | language, he froze the spelling of words. Present-day |
| illiteracy will be exposed. The taking of medicines | | | | English is thus based upon the spelling of words from |
| poses a danger to those who cannot read the | | | | the languages of eight nations who occupied the British |
| instructions on the medicine bottles. Children who have | | | | Isles before 1755. |
| medical emergencies face life-and-death situations if | | | | Professor Julius Nyikos found that there are at least |
| their illiterate parents have become lost because they | | | | 1768 ways of spelling forty sounds in English! There is |
| cannot read the street signs. | | | | not even one invariable spelling rule in English -- some |
| These and hundreds of similar "horror stories" occur all | | | | of the exceptions have exceptions! As a result, every |
| around us every day -- most of them without our | | | | word in a person's vocabulary must be learned, one at |
| knowledge because functional illiterates are extremely | | | | a time, either by rote memory or by repeated use. As |
| good at hiding their illiteracy. Illiterates cannot get by in | | | | a result, many scholars believe the obvious solution to |
| our complex society as well as they should and must | | | | English illiteracy is spelling reform. |
| constantly endure at least thirty-four different kinds of | | | | Consider these facts about spelling reform: |
| serious physical, financial, and emotional problems. | | | | - Dozens of scholars for over 250 years have |
| Many simple tasks we take for granted are impossible | | | | recommended it. |
| for illiterates. | | | | - Several nations, smaller and larger than the U.S., both |
| The shocking 1993 report with the title Adult Literacy in | | | | advanced and third-world, have simplified their spelling. |
| America was the most extensive study of illiteracy | | | | - A simpler spelling system has been proven effective |
| ever commissioned by the U.S. government. It was a | | | | for making learning to read easier in more than 300 |
| five-year, $14 million study involving lengthy interviews | | | | alphabetic languages but never tried in English. In 295 |
| of 26,049 U.S. adults statistically chosen to represent | | | | languages (at least 98% of them) students become |
| the entire U.S. population. It grouped interviewees into | | | | fluent readers in less than three months. Most of the |
| five groups according to their ability to read. The report | | | | approx. 51 percent of U.S. adults who do become |
| shows that the average yearly earnings were: Level 1 | | | | functionally literate require two to four YEARS. |
| (the least literate), $2105; Level 2, $5225; Level 3, | | | | - All reasonable objections to spelling reform have |
| $9090, and Levels 4 and 5 combined, $16,311. The | | | | been thoroughly debunked by several distinguished |
| threshold poverty level for an individual in 1993 was | | | | linguists and educators. |
| $7363 per year. Shockingly, 22 percent of U.S. adults | | | | - The need is greater than ever in our increasingly |
| were Level 1 and 26.7 percent were Level 2. This | | | | complex world, but it has never been tried in English. |
| indicates that 48.7 percent of U.S. adults had average | | | | The new book, Let's End Our Literacy Crisis, details a |
| annual earnings SIGNIFICANTLY below the poverty | | | | recently proposed spelling reform called NuEnglish |
| level, mostly because of their functional illiteracy. | | | | which is scientifically designed to use the spelling of |
| The report of a study done by the same group who | | | | every sound (1) as it is most often spelled in English, as |
| did the 1993 study was issued in 2006 showing no | | | | are 82% of the NuEnglish spellings of the sounds, (2) |
| significant improvement over the 1993 results. | | | | as people expect a certain sound to be spelled, as in |
| We do not see 48.7 percent of U.S. adults in poverty | | | | all of the other spellings, and (3) uses a perfect |
| because most households have more than one | | | | one-to-one ratio of letters-to-sounds. Many years of |
| employed adult and because low-income households | | | | research examining dozens of spelling reform |
| receive financial assistance from the government | | | | proposals has not revealed any other spelling reform |
| (from our taxes) or from family, friends, and charities. | | | | proposal which has even one of these characteristics. |
| Benefits of Ending Illiteracy | | | | To learn NuEnglish, students only need to learn the |
| - You will benefit emotionally if you are concerned that | | | | spelling of 38 sounds instead of all 20,000 or more |
| people you know are -- or will be -- functionally illiterate. | | | | words in their reading vocabulary. It is so simple that |
| - You will benefit if you object to an average personal | | | | present readers of English have learned NuEnglish |
| cost of $5186 each year as a result of illiteracy for (1) | | | | spelling in about five minutes. |
| taxes for government programs that illiterates use and | | | | Adoption of NuEnglish will enable about 600 million of |
| for the truancy, juvenile delinquency, and crime directly | | | | the more than 1.3 billion English-speaking people around |
| related to illiteracy and (2) higher prices for consumer | | | | the world who cannot read English very well -- over |
| goods due to illiterates in the workplace. | | | | 93 million in the U.S. alone -- to be able to learn to read |
| - You will benefit if you are employed or if you have | | | | English in less than three months, as they do in almost |
| financial interests in a business or organization in which | | | | all other alphabetic languages. Without adoption of |
| you invest time or money. Illiteracy affects all | | | | NuEnglish, based upon present statistics, less than two |
| organizations to some extent, some of them seriously. | | | | percent of U.S. adult illiterates will ever become fluent |
| - You will benefit if our nation improves the trade | | | | readers. |
| balance, national relationships, and our national | | | | (C) Copyright 2009 Bob C. |
| employment by improving communication between | | | | |