Re: Commnicating with an audience of low literacy levels

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

>   
>> Any time anybody has
>> spare books after their garage sale (or before), the
>> nearest prison will gladly accept them as a donation.
>> Spare time spent with inmates as a Literacy Volunteer can
>> improve a life and make society better.
>>     
>
> Yes, but informed proactive policies and well-funded training 
> for teachers and administrators in elementary, middle, and 
> high schools can help to reduce the acts that lead to 
> imprisonment, for less cost, and with better outcomes for 
> everyone.

I think the OP's suggestion, that tech writers experience first-hand the 
problems and rewards of tutoring the illiterate, and aiming for the 
standard of 6th Grade Reading Level, has the seeds of a solution to many 
problems.

After years of reading and discussion, I don't believe that anyone knows 
how to fix US schools. More than half of my local high school's senior 
class (of 1000+) last year didn't qualify for graduation, and that is an 
awfully big deliverable blown.

So sorry, but face up to it, you can't fix that with policies, training, 
and money. Leading education thinkers all advise home school. If you are 
concerned about the problem of the schools but aren't the parent of a 
school-aged child, I'm sure you could find some place to teach reading 
skills, instead of waiting around for pie-in-the-sky funding and the 
short bus to come around and pick up all the ones who fell through the 
cracks on the last round.

Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com


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