Poverty of Condition and Poverty of Mind

Why are so many of the American poor unemployable in a time of great economic expansion, when there exists an urgent need for more hands and minds in many occupations? Vague talk about “automation” does not go to the heart of the matter. Although of course the oldfangled manual laborer often has been displaced by machines, still the service industries, many new forms of production, and all sorts of occupations and trades —from skilled furniture craftsman – ship to the federal civil service hospitals—seek in vain for additional competent employees. Nevertheless, several million able-bodied people remain without regular work.

A principal cause of this paradox is the fact that we still have millions of citizens who are virtually illiterate. For modern occupations literacy is essential. Perhaps the most effective tactic in the “war on poverty” would be simply to teach people—and especially the rising generation—to read and write adequately. Abandon the “look-see” folly that has afflicted American pedagogy for a generation, return to the tested method of phonics, and great numbers of “functional illiterates” would become, in short order, employable and much more adequate citizens.

RK

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Russell Kirk

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Why are so many of the American poor unemployable in a time of great economic expansion, when there exists an urgent need for more hands and minds in many occupations? Vague talk about “automation” does not go to the heart of the matter. Although of course the oldfangled manual laborer often has been displaced by machines, still the service industries, many new forms of production, and all sorts of occupations and trades —from skilled furniture craftsman – ship to the federal civil service hospitals—seek in vain for additional competent employees. Nevertheless, several million able-bodied people remain without regular work.

A principal cause of this paradox is the fact that we still have millions of citizens who are virtually illiterate. For modern occupations literacy is essential. Perhaps the most effective tactic in the “war on poverty” would be simply to teach people—and especially the rising generation—to read and write adequately. Abandon the “look-see” folly that has afflicted American pedagogy for a generation, return to the tested method of phonics, and great numbers of “functional illiterates” would become, in short order, employable and much more adequate citizens.