美國的識字率問題 America’s reading problem

Earlier this month, I visited a hilly corner of North Carolina to spend time with family friends. As we sat around the kitchen table, a former musician whom I shall call Dave revealed that he had recently started an entrepreneurial sideline to supplement his meagre family income. During part of the week, he works in a local pawnshop but he does not lend out cash. Instead, Dave fills out application forms for people who want to buy firearms — but cannot read or write. He only charges a few dollars for this but the service is so popular that it provides a steady income. “Lots of people round here can’t read and write,” Dave told me with a rueful laugh. “But they all want guns. So they pay me to do that — I use their driving licences to get all the details.”

本月早些時候，我去了美國北卡萊羅納州一個多山的地方探訪親友。就在我們圍坐在廚房桌子邊時，一位曾經的音樂人（姑且叫他戴夫(Dave)吧）說，爲了貼補微薄的家庭收入，他最近開創了一項副業。每週部分時間裏，他在當地一家當鋪工作，不過並不是在那出借現金，而是幫那些想購買槍支卻不能讀寫的人填寫申請表格。他每單隻收幾美元，不過由於該服務大受歡迎，這項業務爲他帶來了穩定的收入。戴夫苦笑着對我說：“這裏許多人都不會讀寫。不過他們都想買槍。因此，他們付錢給我讓我做這事——我用他們的駕照得到所需的所有具體信息。”

Welcome to an oft-ignored feature of America in 2015 — and I am not just talking about firearms. These days, there is hand-wringing aplenty, particularly on the political left, about income inequality. As a Financial Times series indicated last week, the gap between rich and poor is yawning ever wider as the middle class shrinks.

歡迎您見識2015年美國一個時常被人忽視的特徵——我說的並不僅僅是槍支。最近一段時間，人們對收入不平等簡直絕望了，尤其是在政治上偏左的人士當中。正如不久前英國《金融時報》一個系列報道所指出的，在中產階級不斷萎縮之際，貧富差距正在越拉越大。

But what is often forgotten is that this income inequality reflects and reinforces other pernicious cultural chasms. Today, millions of Americans are enjoying the bonanza of an information boom, with once unimaginable power at their fingertips or, more specifically, on the buttons of their tablets and smartphones. They are “haves”, in the sense of having access to the 21st-century economy. But there is also an underbelly of “have-nots”, who lack access to this economic and information engine, sometimes for the most basic reason of not being able to read or write.

然而，人們往往忘記的是，這種收入不平等反映並強化了文化上的其他有害鴻溝。如今，數以百萬計的美國人正在享受信息爆炸的豐碩成果，他們的指尖——或者更具體地說，他們的平板電腦和智能手機屏幕上的按鈕——賦予他們一度無法想象的力量。他們可以觸摸到21世紀的經濟，從這個意義上說，他們是“擁有者”。然而，整個社會還存在一個由“沒有者”構成的薄弱環節，他們無法觸摸到這種推動經濟發展和信息傳播的動力，這有的時候是出於一個最簡單的原因——他們沒有讀寫的能力。

Much of the time this underbelly is concealed; at least from people like me, fortunate to live among information-blessed urban elites who take reading skills for granted. But the issue is surprisingly widespread. And it is not just a problem of rural communities or non-white groups — indeed, many of Dave’s North Carolina clients are white.

多數時候，這個薄弱環節是隱藏起來的；至少對於像我這樣，生活在享有信息、將閱讀能力視爲理所當然的城市精英圈子中的幸運兒而言是如此。然而，其實這個問題普遍得驚人。而且，這個問題並不僅僅存在於鄉村社區或非白人羣體中——事實上，戴夫的許多北卡萊羅納客戶都是白人。

According to a 2013 survey by the US Department of Education and National Institute of Literacy, 14 per cent of the adult population (or 32 million people) cannot read properly, while 21 per cent read below a level required in the fifth grade. And 19 per cent of high-school graduates cannot read. In the north-east, illiteracy is lower; in some southern states, such as Mississippi, it is higher. North Carolina is in the middle. This rate has been remarkably stable in recent decades, and it puts the US in 12th place among major industrialised countries (the UK fares only slightly better).

根據美國教育部(Department of Education)和美國國家識字研究所(National Institute of Literacy) 2013年開展的一項調查，14%的成年人口（也就是3200萬人）不怎麼識字，21%的人閱讀能力低於5年級要求的水平。19%的高中畢業生不識字。美國東北部文盲率較低，而在密西西比州等南部一些州，文盲率則較高。北卡萊羅納州的文盲率處於中間水平。最近幾十年，這一比例一直非常穩定，它令美國在主要發達國家中排第12位（英國的成績也只是略好一點）。

But what is truly startling — and tragic — is the degree to which “the link between academic failure and delinquency, violence and crime is welded to reading failure”, as a report from the Department of Justice states. Apparently 85 per cent of juvenile delinquents and 70 per cent of the prison population struggles to read. Indeed, the link is so well established that pro-literacy groups claim that some states can predict their need for future prison beds by looking at the literacy rates in schools. And, unsurprisingly, half of adults with poor literacy live in poverty, shut out of most 21st-century jobs. As Juli Willeman, head of the Pi Beta Phi group, which runs literacy campaigns, observes: “Reading proficiency predicts future success.” Or the lack of it.

但正如美國司法部的一份報告所指出，真正令人震驚（且可悲）的是，“學業失敗與青少年犯罪、暴力和犯罪之間的關聯（很大程度上）要歸咎於不識字”。據稱，85%的少年犯以及70%的在押犯不怎麼識字。事實上，這種關聯如此明確，以至於掃盲團體宣稱，一些州可以通過觀察學校學生的識字率來預測未來監獄所需的牀位數。不意外的是，不怎麼識字的成年人中，有一半生活窘迫，被21世紀的大部分工作拒之門外。開展掃盲活動的Pi Beta Phi組織負責人朱莉維勒曼(Juli Willeman)指出：“讀寫流利預示着未來的成功。”不會讀寫則預示着未來的失敗。

The good news is that these statistics are so shocking that they are provoking some policy response. A host of philanthropic ventures, such as Pi Beta Phi, are waging pro-literacy campaigns for adults and children. Most prisons now feature intensive literacy courses, not least because prisoners who can read are far less likely to reoffend. The public education system is also (somewhat belatedly) getting involved. In North Carolina, for example, a “retention” policy was launched three years ago that keeps any third-grade child who cannot read properly in that class until they have mastered the basics. In October, North Carolina education officials revealed that 14 per cent of pupils were “retained” last year.

好消息是，這些統計數據如此令人震驚，以至於激起了一些政策迴應。Pi Beta Phi等許多慈善機構正在開展面向成人和兒童的識字活動。如今，大多數監獄都開辦了密集的識字課程，主要原因是識字的囚犯重新犯罪的可能性會大大降低。公共教育體系（雖然行動得有些遲）也在參與進來。例如，北卡羅來納州3年前啓動了一項“留級”政策，讓所有沒有真正掌握識字能力的三年級兒童留級，直至他們掌握基本讀寫能力。十月，北卡羅萊那州的教育官員透露，去年有14%的學生被要求“留級”。

But while these initiatives are laudable, they remain piecemeal compared with the scale of the problem. The chance of America changing that dismal ratio anytime soon, in other words, looks low; indeed, almost as low as changing the gun culture. So I would bet that my friend Dave will be peddling his services for a long while yet. Call it, if you like, a paradox of America’s modern economy; and a nasty rebuke to anyone who thinks we all live in the innovative, internet age.

雖然這些舉措值得稱讚，但相對這一問題的普遍程度，這些舉措仍不夠系統。換句話說，美國能很快改變這種可悲識字率的機會看起來很渺茫；實際上，其可能性與改變槍械文化的可能性一樣低。因此，我敢打賭，我朋友戴夫還將在很長時間裏繼續兜售他的服務。如果喜歡，你可以稱之爲美國現代經濟的一種悖論；或是對任何認爲我們都生活在創新互聯網時代的人的有力駁斥。