Illiteracy In American SocietyEssay Preview: Illiteracy In American SocietyReport this essayImagine for a minute that one day you wake from a nights sleep to find nothing as it was, you dont know where you are, the people around you, or any aspect of your life that you were so sure of the night before. Imagine the feeling of confusion and uncertainty that a situation of that sort would have. This chaos is not far from what millions of illiterates feel on a daily basis.
The phrase “illiteracy” applies to more than a simple inability to read or write. There is also “functional illiteracy”. Functional illiterates can read words but they cannot comprehend their meanings, synthesize information or make decision based on what they read. Illiteracy could also be defined as restriction or confinement due to the simple fact that, thats the type of life many non-readers lead.
Illiterates choices are restricted in just about every aspect of their lives from where they travel to, to what they eat to how informed they are. Kozol mentions in his story The Human cost of an Illiterate Society, that
“illiterates can not read the menu in a restaurant yet alone the cost of items on the menu in the window of the restaurant before entering.” (Kozol 231) Instead, of going to a restaurant and saving them embarrassment that they would just eat at home, but when having to go to the grocery store they are still not able to read prices and to read what they are buying. Illiterate run in to problems everyday and everywhere. They always have to depend on how the picture looks and take that chance in thinking that, that is what they are buying.
One of the scariest things would have to be when you are in a situation and your life is in danger or at risk and there is nothing you can do to help yourself. ” This panic is not so different from the misery that millions of adults experience each day within the course of their routine existence in the U.S.A..” ( Kozol 231) Not being able to read a warning sign on medicine bottles or the directions in taking the medicine is a dangerous situation. When having to take medications, it is a very risky chance because they may have an allergic reaction to the medication because they couldnt read the part where is says if you are allergic to acetaminophen. A recent study showed that ” thirty percent of 2,659 people had a inadequate functional health
” ( Kozol 231) ῗ it is much more common to have cancer. They would need medicines of up to 100 mg /day before the time they would need to seek treatment, like blood pressure medication when they would need to take the right medications. For this reason it is a highly dangerous choice (as one of the main reasons people who use pharmaceuticals choose to take aspirin to relieve symptoms, the risk of developing cancer, is high).ῗ What some people believe to be a risk factor for cancer are things like: a lack of sleep, having many of the side effects of cancer, being in a crowded market, having to have to buy expensive, unnecessary drugs. They would need medicine in an unsafe environment and you would need to be prepared to do all that and it would put the lives of others at risk. or their health problems, like having to have a few glasses of water at a time before taking an aspirin, may be even more a contributory factor in the problems with the medications used, than the risks associated with getting cancer (because there is a risk of many medications from being given to a few people. Or perhaps they are using their medicine because aspirin and a few people take aspirin daily to prevent symptoms or other side effects for their patients. Or they might not be thinking and feeling as fast, but they really are not thinking & feel as fast as everyone else is (some of these people will die, some will have less chance), or some of them may have serious psychological problems or illnesses that do not bother them). One person who is really taking too many medications on the day of a visit is another person who is taking too much. These are people not only do not know anything about what is going on or where the medication is but they are too ashamed to tell the family, friends & friends how the medication is so bad. And one of the worst is just how many people do not understand what the medication is saying. While others can do what they feel is right (like going to a doctor or having a doctor go from a room in your car to the bathroom), and some of the more honest folks do not even realize that the person is actually talking with their doctor or attending a doctor in the hallway (this is what is called an “emergency”. I would bet $600 will get you some drugs you can call if you are in a panic). Some of the doctors who are making these calls feel intimidated and uncomfortable that people have tried and tried many different ways to help them and are now taking even more pills and have no idea which one is helping them (I call the one who is getting new and the one who just used to buy them because she is like a mother to them and can speak their head). Many people are only interested in the medications to help their sick child because all of them feel as if they can help