Preview

Benefits of Strong Literacy Skills

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
587 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Benefits of Strong Literacy Skills
Dear Grace Literacy is crucial to the success of individuals in both their career aspirations and their quality of life. Strong literacy skills are closely linked to the probability of having a good job, decent earnings, and access to training opportunities. Individuals with weak literacy skills are more likely to be unemployed or, if employed, to be in jobs that pay little or that offer poor hours or working conditions. Traditionally, literacy has referred to the ability to read, understand, and use information. But the term has come to take on broader meaning, standing for a range of knowledge, skills and abilities relating to reading, mathematics, science and more.
Subsequently in 1740 South Carolina if you taught a slave to write or employed him in a job requiring writing then the teacher or employer would be fined 100 pounds. The Virginia code of 1819 states that the teaching or assembly of any colored persons is unlawful and is punishable by any means deemed necessary by the court or judge. In 1830-1831 the state of North Carolina passed a law that prohibited the teachings of reading and writing to a slave. Alabama in 1833 enacted three laws that repressed slaves and people of color by not allowing them to be taught reading and writing as well as assembling more than five people of color. I have included this information to show how powerful and important knowledge is. Knowledge is so powerful that these people feared it so much that they felt the need to create these laws to protect themselves from what they thought would happen if slaves had the same power they had.
Being able to read and write is the most basic foundation of knowledge accumulation and further skill development (source #4). Without literacy there can be no quality education. There is currently one out of five adults that are illiterate. If this trend continues then by 2015 over 700 million adults worldwide will not be literate. Children that participate in school for their first three

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In fact, as early as the 16th century, to assuage southern authorities’ anxieties of an uprising, they enacted slave codes, laws aimed to maintain control of slaves and these laws eventually prohibited slaves from learning to read or write (Race, Slavery and the Law in Colonial Virginia). In 1830, Native Americans were “being pushed off their lands” by President Jackson’s Indian Removal Act (Zinn, pg. 217), and even a decade after Jackson’s presidential term ended, women were still being “denied the facilities to a thorough education” (Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls Convention)…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Reading is one of the most important skills a learner must acquire in life. Statistics show that students who are behind in reading…

    • 1598 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    For many years there were laws in place that prohibited slaves from education. One statute in particular, passed in North Carolina in 1830, articulated that “any free person, who shall hereafter teach, or attempt to teach, any slave within this State to read or write, the use of figures excepted, or shall give or sell to such slave or slaves any books or pamphlets, shall be liable to indictment in any court of record in this State” (Williams, 2005 para. 2). It was illegal for Africans to learn despite already being a slave. These laws were put in place to keep the slave master in power and the slave in the dark. Slave masters didn’t want their slaves to have education because it would make them more conscious of the situation they were in, would create dissatisfaction in their minds, and provide them with more clever ways of rebellion. The slaves where already running away with little to no education, so teaching them how to read would aid them on what areas to seek refuge and which areas to stay away from. Most slaves where illiterate so keeping education away from them was also a tool of psychological control for the slave…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They said about literacy that literacy is one of the engines to get money or profit, and to compete advantages. In addition, people’s literacy skills have less growing in their economy values because of changing in the literacy standers with every new generation of learners.…

    • 1132 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Laws were set up to make distinctions between slaves, servants and even the colonists, on the basis of race. In 1662, the “slave codes” were set up in Virginia. This “decreed the iron conditions of slavery for blacks.” This made blacks and their children property of their white masters, for the rest of their lives. In some colonies, teaching a slave to read or write was considered a crime. Even if slaves converted to Christianity, it did not qualify them for their freedom. By the government setting up these laws, it only influenced the colonists to look down upon slaves and become racists against…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Praise of Illiteracy

    • 1882 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Every third inhabitant of our planet manages to get by without the art of reading and without the art of writing. This includes roughly 900 million people, and their numbers will certainly increase. The figure is impressive but misleading for Humanity comprises not only the living and the unborn but the dead as well. If they are not forgotten, then the conclusion becomes inevitable that literacy is the exception rather than the rule.…

    • 1882 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reading: somewhere, somehow it is all around us. Everyone learned to read through different methods and sources. As I grew up, education was not a question. I was taught to focus on school and everything else would fall into place. I knew that I would attend college and be given the opportunity to have a great education. However, other people are less fortunate than I have been. Minorities and people living in poverty cannot afford to read books and expand their knowledge. This hurts them as they age and causes them to fall behind in school. Literacy is very important to our culture, as it affects how our country is ran and decisions that are made in state and national offices.…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Literacy Dbq

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Literacy has always been the key factor in human development and has helped people through tough times. In tough times people rely on the knowledge they have to get through the situation. Literacy is important in times a crisis because to know what's going on in the world you have to be able to read news articles, signs, directions and instructions. Literacy has helped people develop in ways unimaginable. Everything started with an idea , something to write with, and something to write on.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In our society today, literacy is no longer defined as being able to read and write very little just to get by, but it is being able to read, write, and comprehend the information presented to you which you can use in order to be a functional and efficient member of society. Even in one of the wealthiest, most technologically advanced countries in the world, literacy is still a matter of concern in modern day America. It is alarming to know that 1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read and approximately 35 million adults read below the level needed to function in society, many of whom cannot read at all (Kozol 248, "11 Facts About Literacy in America."). How is this even possible? What problems can undereducation and illiteracy bring? Who does this issue really affect?…

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Literacy and education plays an important role in America. More than 4 percent of the adult population does not know how to read or write. (Literacy Partners.) Education is the basis of all jobs, governmental structure, and even society itself. Recent events and documents state the emphasis on the importance of a basic education. The rate of illiteracy is growing at an alarming rate, and nothing is being done about it. Illiteracy is a big problem today because it is directly associated with poverty, crime, and costs the government more money than budgeted.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Literacy and Young People

    • 1795 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The majority of jobs and careers rely on an element of basic literacy (and numeracy) skills. Literacy is required in our everyday lives, to keep us safe by being able to read signs and follow instructions, read directions, reading newspapers, recipes, food labels, dealing with household finances. Literacy also enables us to progress with technology by being able use computers competently, surfing the internet and being able to read and write emails.…

    • 1795 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    could read and do sums - A vitally important ability in a Jim Crow society. Jim Crowism…

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    At any moment, your life can change. In any instant you could find yourself walking down a different path than you started down. You would never know it, but the simplest form of literacy could make the world of difference in your life. Writing, believe it or not, is a constant in your everyday life. Whether making a grocery list, composing an email, or simply doing your homework, there is no escape from writing. In my case, however, writing came to be my only salvation for justice.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Literacy

    • 9318 Words
    • 38 Pages

    * "Literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development. Educational opportunities depend on literacy.…

    • 9318 Words
    • 38 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Uu114

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This oral seminar will highlight the causes of low literacy and its effects on the society. Firstly, it will consider how poverty leads to illiteracy. Secondly, it will provide details how high drop out rates due to the inability to cope leads to low literacy. Moving further, it will examine how home environmental factors determine literacy rates. However, there are many effects of illiteracy on the living society. This oral seminar will firstly assert that people’s safety and lives will be at risk due to illiteracy. Following that it will claim that the future of children will also be affected. Finally, it will consider the effects of low literacy on people’s normal life chores. This seminar will conclude by stating the various causes and effects of low literacy on society and will provide a recommendation for all young people to be encouraged to…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays