Poverty breeds Illiteracy and more Poverty

Literacy, as we all know, allows an individual to rise and overcome the obstacles of life in order to become a successful being of and asset to society. Those that do not become literate under whatever circumstances are less fortunate since they will only breed misery and poverty. Those who are less fortunate are normally the ones that receive welfare, are in jail or are constantly on the wrong side of the law in order to survive.What most people do not understand is that even though there are some illiterate individuals who are in their situation out of their own free will, most of the truly educationally denied beings are those who live in extreme poverty.

The truly illiterate beings on this planet are those who never had a chance of overcoming their strife because by mere cruel luck happened to be born into poverty. These individuals are the adults and children of 3rd world countries, where either there are no schools or poor educational systems. Most of the children from these countries will never have the opportunity to develop their literacy and remain that way up to when they are adults. These people and their future generations will only breed more illiteracy because poverty creates more and more illiteracy every day.

On the other hand, there are some people in the United States who can be considered illiterate only because their lack of motivation to achieve a good education and stay within a mediocre dead-end job or just remained unemployed collecting welfare. These low income individuals even though struck by poverty have the chance to overcome their hardships because the means are available to them. The children of such individuals if not properly educated will proceed to a life of crime and gang life in certain situations. Statistics show that "Illiterate adults account for 75 percent of the unemployed, one third of the mothers receiving AFDC, 85 percent of the juveniles who appear in court, 60 percent of prison inmates, nearly 40 percent of minority youth, and over 70 percent of the high school dropouts."(Illiteracy causes poverty)

In the end, illiteracy is brought about through poverty. Although there are some individuals that because of their own actions decide to remain in their state and poverty and illiteracy, there are others who have no choice but to suffer and remain without a means to obtain education.

Statistics were obtained from http://www.arthurhu.com/98/01/illpov.txt