When it comes to reading a newspaper, filling out a job application or reading instructions on a medicine bottle, nearly half of the residents just can't do it. Of the 200,000 adults who were found to be functionally illiterate, the study found that about half of them had a high school diploma or GED, while the other half did not. Out of that same group, only 10 percent are receiving adult literacy classes to teach them how to read, while only 25 percent of adult-education programs in Detroit offer services for learners at a low reading level.
For years now, Detroit has suffered with staggering unemployment rates sometimes as high as 50 percent. When the economy does begin to improve and jobs start opening up, the city's high illiteracy makes one question whether the residents will even be able to qualify for the most basic of jobs.
If the city does not find a way to correct this, the residents of Detroit will continue to be held back, regardless of what state the economy is in.
[Source]
Can't read or write, but I'm willing to bet they all know the words to every song that comes on whatever Clearchannel station plays out there. On the one hand I feel like people need to stop relying on the schools to teach their children and take more responsibility for their children's education. I find it too convenient to blame someone else for what your kid doesn't know.
On the other hand I realize it's hard to teach someone what you don't know yourself. I understand it very well may be, that in the world these people live in, reading and writing aren't the most pressing needs in everyday survival. Detroit ain't exactly Disney World.
But at days end, I think if a ex-slaves who didn't themselves know how to read and write could insure their children could learn how to do so, these free men and women in The D can do the same.
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