Jonathan Kozol The Human Cost Of An Illiterate Society Analysis

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Technology and education has surged a tremendous amount from what it was decades ago. Advanced computers to super smart phones and new and improved school textbooks are among many of the new breakthroughs. Throughout the story school vs education Russell baker the author argues the deficiencies both school and education depicted throughout his time. Jonathan Kozol the author of “The human cost of and illiterate society” argues that illiterate people are a burden to non-illiterate humans and that they’re sometimes taken advantage of. Both of these stories were written in the mid to late 1900s and everything wasn’t as advanced as it is today. Education as a whole and schooling has progressed a lot. The number of illiterate people has increased …show more content…
In the story “The human cost of an illiterate society” written by Jonathan Kozol sheds perspective on this matter and he shows how sympathetic he is towards people that are suffering. Illiterate humans are those who are unable to read or write. Kozol a fully literate human being gives an understanding into daily problems of those who are illiterate face and how they will never will be able to function efficiently within a western society. Kozol states “Illiterates cannot read the menu in a restaurant, cannot study school department circulars or read the instructions on a bottle of prescription” (The human cost of an illiterate society, Kozol) just some of the main problem they face in everyday society. At times illiterates feel like they’re taken advantage of one woman states “I couldn’t understand the bill, and then I couldn’t write the checks to pay them, we signed things we didn’t know” (The human cost of an illiterate society, Kozol). Taxpayers are on the hinge to pay for such problems such as the monthly welfare checks certain illiterate individuals receive it’s so severe in some cases that “They must depend on word-of-mouth instructions for the welfare worker” (The human cost of an illiterate society, Kozol). The problem of illiteracy can correlate to the lack of education and ready available utilities these individuals have. During 1985 when this story was written the lack of technology readily available was more scarce than it was in today’s

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