GATEWAY TO OPPORTUNITY

With more years of schooling, young people will find it possible to enter occupations otherwise closed to them. Among currently scarce professional, technical, and kindred workers, 75 percent have some college training. The proportion of persons in this field with less than a high school diploma is, as might be expected, very small.

Persons with 4 years of high school or more form the largest nucleus of workers in several major occupation groups: Managers, officials and proprietors, and clerical and sales workers. Persons with less than 4 years of high school are concentrated in lower paying and less stable occupations such as semiskilled operatives and laborers. Unemployment is more prevalent among workers with relatively little education.

EFFECT ON INCOME

Family incomes should also be affected significantly. A survey of 1956 income, taken in March 1957, showed that among families in which no adult had completed even 1 year of college, some 19 percent had an income of less than $2,000. Of these families which included one or more college graduates, less than 4 percent were in this low income bracket.

On the other hand, 64 percent of the families with one or more college graduates were in the $6000-and-over bracket as compared with only 26 percent of the families with no college-educated adult. Almost three-fourths of the families in which all adult members were college graduates were in the $6,000-and-over bracket.

Teachers traditionally have been far above the adult population generally, in years of college completed. One of the many implications of this national upward trend in level of education is the necessity it imposes upon teachers for a longer and more comprehensive period of professional education.

EXHIBIT C

[From Adult Leadership, October 1958]

NEEDED: ANOTHER CRASH PROGRAM

(By Ambrose Caliver)

THE COOPERATION OF ALL ADULT EDUCATORS IN A CAMPAIGN TO STAMP OUT ILLITERACY IS URGENTLY REQUESTED

Among the many problems today calling for a crash program, that of adult illiteracy is perhaps the most neglected. Yet it has relevance to many of the programs given high priority by educational, political, civic, business, and philanthropic leaders. This is so because adult illiteracy not only affects the personal development and well-being of the individual, but it also is significantly related to our national defense and security, our social and economic progress, and our cultural and political development.

Moreover, modern scientific and technological advances are increasing at an accelerating rate of speed, complexity, and interdependence of the various components of our civilization. And these in turn are demanding more exacting standards of communication among all our citizens-hence, the need for a nationwide crash program to reduce as quickly as possible, and eventually to eradicate, adult illiteracy. This is the problem and need to which the National Commission for Adult Literacy has addressed itself, and which this article discusses.

WHAT ARE THE FACTS?

According to the 1957 current population survey of the Bureau of the Census, slightly over 82 million adults were functionally illiterate (had completed less than 5 years of elementary schooling)-nearly 900,000 less than in 1950. There were 24 million persons, however, who had completed no years of schooling, which was an increase of 64,000 over 1950. In 1950 the functionally illiterate adults were nearly evenly divided among the native whites, foreign-born whites, and Negroes.

Illiteracy is a national problem. Although the greatest incidence is in the South, practically every State in the Union has large numbers of functionally illiterate adults. In several of the Northern and Western States the rates of illiteracy are relatively low, as compared to those of the Southern States (which range from 10 to 27 percent). However, the numbers are sufficiently large to create a problem that should not be ignored. For example, the rate in New York was about 7 percent in 1950, but the number of functionally illiterate adults was nearly a million. The rates in Illinois and California were 8 and 7 percent, respectively, but the number of illiterates in each State was over 400,000. The corresponding number in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio was approximately a quarter of a million; while in Connecticut, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin, the numbers ranged from 100,000 to 200,000.

The 1950 census revealed these additional significant facts: There were nearly 52 million adults 25 to 54 years of age who were functionally illiterate, and approximately 150,000 youths 17 and 18 years of age also in this category. Seven percent and 21 percent, respectively, of the adults in urban and rural areas were functionally illiterate.

Facts about selective service rejections provide another dimension to the problem of adult illiteracy. Nearly three-quarters of a million men were rejected for military service because of educational deficiencies during World War II; and during the first year of the Korean conflict the number was approximately 300,000.

CAN ILLITERATES LEARN?

The educability of illiterates is so well known that it hardly seems necessary to take the time and space to document it. Since the question, however, is sometimes raised by certain persons, it seems appropriate to discuss the subject. Let us begin first with our own personal documentation. There is hardly a reader of this statement who is not personally acquainted with individuals who are illiterate, but who, nevertheless, are quite intelligent. Psychological studies support the conclusion that a fair proportion of noninstitutional illiterates are educable. Thorndike's study of Adult Learning' and studies and experiences of the Selective Service System' during World War II confirm the conclusion that a majority of adult illiterates can learn, and that some of them have high potential intellectual ability. A study made in Canada in 1940 indicates that the percentage of the population whose mental deficiency would make it quite unable to learn to read and write is probably small.' Recent studies in the Army confirm Bingham's conclusions as shown from the following statement sent the Office of Education on January 16, 1952:

"Attached for your information is a copy of a chart, 'Relationship Between AGCT Scores and Education,' which indicates that within a group of illiterate enlisted men, the distribution of mental ability covered the five established mental grades. In general, the purpose of the categorizing scores achieved on Army tests was to indicate the relative position of individuals with respect to their ability to absorb military training. Thus, from the attached data, it may be concluded that certain illiterate enlisted individuals possessed ability to absorb training equal to that of many literate individuals."

For further proof, all one needs to do is to apply the pragmatic test of results achieved in thousands of adult education classes throughout the country.

Not only can adult illiterates learn, but they want to learn and will learn when given an opportunity in keeping with their adult interests, needs, and self-respect. "Why then," it is often asked, "do we have all these illiterates in our Nation when we have free, universal, and compulsory education?"

There is no one simple answer. A cursory view indicates that some of it may be due to inaccessibility of schools, lack of educational materials and facilities, lack of parental concern, poverty and other economic reasons, illness, poor teaching and administration, and lack of enforcement of compulsory school attendance laws. However, the problem is difficult, and is the result of many interrelated and complex factors. And they need to be subjected to careful research in order to provide valid conclusions, and tested facts and hypotheses that will serve as

1 Thorndike, E. L., et al., Adult Learning, the Macmillan Co., New York, 1928, p. 335. 2 Goldberg, Samuel, Army Training of Illiterates in World War II, Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, 1951.

3 Norris, K. E., "The Three R's and the Adult Worker," McGill University, Montreal, 1940, p. 26.

guidelines in developing appropriate recruitment and teaching methods, and instructional materials. This is one of the concerns of the national commission.

IMPLICATIONS OF ILLITERACY

Having established the fact of the existence of a large mass of illiterates in our population, and of their potential resources, we turn now to a brief consideration of some of the facts underlying the implications of illiteracy.

The overarching fact is that we are living in an age in which literacy is increasingly becoming a must. This has implications for many areas of our life, of which only a few will be touched upon here.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE AND SECURITY

The Military Establishment is rapidly becoming a highly scientific and technical enterprise. The Defense Department, according to testimony of the late Assistant Secretary William H. Francis before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee last March, is anxious to have authority to defer educationally deficient draftees because of the expense involved in inducting, attempting to train, and then having to release them due to deficient educational background. Eli Ginzberg, a consultant to the Defense Department, is of the opinion that the armed services "have too many people who are 'expert' at not being able to do anything at all or very little at best. The services need people who can absorb training and acquire skills quickly."

EXHIBIT K