Ed Student Claims 50% Of Country Is Illiterate

The "average citizen" may be too illiterate to read a newspaper.

An article written by David Harman, a student at the Graduate School of Education, and published in the Harvard Educational Review claims that half the nation's adults are "functionally illiterate."

And despite the official estimate of the Census Bureau that only 8.3 per cent of the adult population is functionally illiterate, the U.S. Office of Education agrees with Harmen's estimate.

The discrepaney between Harmen's calculation and the census figure stems from a difference in the definition of "functional illiterate."

The Census definition of literacy is based only on whether an individual has completed the fourth or fifth grade.

But Harman contends that a fifthgrade education is inadequate. Furthermore, he maintains that there is no assurance that an individual will retain even that insufficient level of education.

Harman argues that much essential reading material, such as newspapers. job applications, and tax forms, requires "at least tenth grade and perhaps 11th grade education."

The U.S. Office of Education reviewed Harman's article prior to its publication. "We found no fault with it." Paul Delker, director of the adult education program said. "He and I are in complete agreement on the problem of definition."

Harman's estimation of the magnitude of functional illiteracy is based on the Census Bureau's calculation that in 1968 half the population had less than a twe??th-grade education.

Harman. 25 years old, was director of Israel's adult literacy campaign for three years before coming to Harvard to study for a degree at the School of Education.