NRRF - Link between Illiteracy and Crime?

Link between Illiteracy and Crime?

by Mona McNee
United Kingdom

In today's Daily Telegraph (January 24, 2004), "Parents and Education" page of "Weekend", the first of John Clare's "Any Questions" asks, "As there's such a clear link between illiteracy and crime, isn't it criminal that primary schools fail to teach one pupil in four how to read?"

Mr. Clare responds: "The link is certainly well established.... But I find it hard to accept the notion that not being able to read turns people into criminals. It is much more likely that they became criminals for the same reason they failed to learn to read: that their mental and emotional development was stunted at a crucial stage of their childhood. In other words, phonics won't keep people out of prison. Better parenting would, though."

But we all know struggling young non-readers with excellent parents, don't we? I wrote to Mr. Clare as follows:

Sorry, John. For once I must disagree with you. You "find it hard to accept the notion that not being able to read turns people into criminals." This is part of the "eventual social consequences" that Hogenson (Minneapolis) wrote about in 1981. Did you not read Michael Brunner's book, Retarding America: The Imprisonment of Potential (1993)? If you have not seen it, I will lend it to you. The psychological effect of reading failure (CAUSED BY THE WRONG TEACHING IN SCHOOLS, NOT BY WHAT PARENTS DO) is enormous. Reading failure, among tiny infants [small children] who do not understand what has happened, shatters the self-esteem like nothing else - far worse than failing at math. One of my pupils, before he came to me, used to lie on his back on the floor and stamp his heels. He calmed down, passed plenty of O levels years later and is now just fine.

Why are schools the No.1 target for arson? Reading failure is something infants [small children] do not expect. They try their best, to no avail, because they are not taught the right way. They do not FEEL stupid but come to the conclusion that they must be (even if they are not) because they see other children learning, but not them. Some children come to me, and I almost feel they will spark if I touch them. They are 200% tense. School becomes a 12-year prison sentence of failure, humiliation, frustration...desperation.

No, it was their academic development that was "stunted at a crucial stage of their development" and YES phonics-first would work wonders. So many factors in the home are beyond the reach of "society", but teaching reading is the ONE factor that we can do something about. That is a main source of my "passion". Some poor readers have excellent parents and parenting. Those who have brought their child to me were doing good parenting, yes, AFTER school had mucked their child up. I once asked Sue Lloyd if the Lowestoft police could check on the delinquency rate round Woods Lake, but she said her pupils were only in First School, and then went to different middle and secondary schools, and the results got blurred. But over the next ten years someone could check (???) on the delinquency/crime rate round St. Michael's, Stoke Gifford (or Bristol), and Clackmannanshire. Right now, you could check on the truancy rate.

Failure of infants [young children] to learn to read affects every corner of our society - prisons, job centres, factories, YOIs, ... The only benefit I can think of is that it can be the extra spur to greatness in non-academic fields - Jimmy White, top snooker player; Redgrave, rower; Jackie Stewart, car racer; Duncan Goodhew, swimmer, etc. etc. They have to prove themselves with an "I'll show 'em!!!" attitude, and some do.

Mona McNee, United Kingdom

Editor's Note: Mona McNee is a longtime champion of effective reading instruction in England and has developed an excellent reading program herself.

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