Illiteracy is a growing problem in American society. Congress has responded to this problem by developing major bills which are designed to provide funding for the national coordination of literacy programs (Fields, 1991, p. 12). The prevalence of illiteracy in the United States today can be seen in the report of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, which claimed: "23 million Americans are illiterate. Another 45 million adults read with only minimal comprehension" (Collins, 1990, p. D2). When the Federal Emergency Management Agency responded to the Hurricane Hugo disaster in rural South Carolina, thousands of people were unable to sign their own names on their relief applications or to read the brochures provided by the agency (X marks the spot, 1990, p. 20).
The majority of America's illiterate population is to be found among high school drop-outs. However, even among Americans who have completed schooling, many are "functionally illiterate," which means that they are extremely limited in their reading and writing abilities. Different educators define functional illiteracy in different ways. For example: "Some experts draw the line of functional illiteracy at an eighth grade reading level, which would include 20-30% of the U.S. population. Other literacy groups claim as many as 50% of all Americans don't read well enough to understand articles in Time or Newsweek (Current programs, 1988, p. 10). Functional illiteracy makes it difficult for people to function properly in society. For example, many functionally illiterate people "cannot follow written instructions, take a driver's license test or answer a help-wanted advertisement" (Getting a read, 1988, p. 187). This problem is important in American society today because of "the increasing demand of today's business world for literate employees" (X marks the spot, 1990, p. 20). The complexities of the modern workplace requires employees to have reading and w...