THE EIGHTH SIN

In the clamor of discussion which has been periodically stimulated during the last decade by discoveries of new defects in the American educational system, attention has centered largely on the work of secondary schools and universities. The other extreme of the system has been somewhat neglected; and the problem of illiteracy has slipped from the public mind. Yet the statistics gathered by the draft board indicated clearly that within the mass of people there were an amazing number of illiterates. Recent estimates have placed this figure as high as five millions.

In other countries the problem of illiteracy is even more severe. As the Chinese Minister explained in his address at Columbia, in China it is complicated by the fact that the spoken language of the people and the written language of literature are very different Added to the poverty of people and government and the natural difficulty of mastering the thousands of characters required to convey Chinese thought on paper this handicap might prove insurmountable. In spite of these grave difficulties Chinese educators have launched an advertising campaign to impress the people with the desirability of national literacy which has already begun to prove its effectiveness.

The Chinese have happily hit upon a scheme which may prove a practical solution for the American problem of illiteracy. The facilities for acquiring a reading and writing knowledge of English are widely available; school attendance is compulsory for a number of years in every state; extension courses are offered by most metropolitan universities; the Y. M. C. A. and Americanization bureaus conduct innumerable elementary courses. At the same time the tide of illiterates which once came from Europe has been checked by law. What is now necessary is apparently a broadcasting of an appeal to make use of these facilities. The arguments against illiteracy are sufficiently convincing if only they are placed emphatically before illiterates. A shifting of some of the present fervid discussion to the problem of beginnings in education is a necessary first step toward a campaign against the disgrace of illiteracy.