Illiteracy

This article highlights a program to teach illiterate adults how to read. I'm blown away by the 14% rate they quote as the percentage of adults who are functionally illiterate and who must face incredible challenges every day just in getting around the city. It actually reminds me a little of being in Israel, since my Hebrew is pretty poor, but in Israel, there is so much English everywhere that it's really not that hard. But, back to the article, I think it's really sad how the educational system fails so many - the article points out that up to 80% of the functionally illiterate are high school graduates. How a student gets through 13 years of school and can't read is beyond me.