If you haven't seen Arrival, I highly recommend it. I will not go into the plot details. I will not hyper-analyze the acting, cinematography, scoring, etc. I am not even going to really talk about the movie save for one subtext which underlies the primary plot point: literacy and language. Primarily the precedent that language is a vital tool and weapon, and we must learn to differentiate the two concepts while simultaneously understanding when each is relevant/necessary in context. This underscores an even deeper issue that is prevalent in America: the rising tide of STEM.

This is not an attack against the STEM field or individuals who practice any of the academic disciplines which are loosely defined by the term. However, local, state, and even federal mandates and initiatives have scared people away from liberal and fine arts pursuits in favor of a promised safe-haven in scientific, mathematical, or engineering fields. Many of which have recently been inundated with an incomprehensible number of future job-seekers and young adults who, frankly, have been raised to believe that a life of academic rigor and sustained mental health deficiencies are normal and that a field which they may not enjoy is their only hope of obtaining a happy, productive lifestyle similar to that from the 1970’s. An American Dream-Turned-Nightmare as re-segregation of people along academic lines forces our society to reanalyze what we deem to be vital for culture, forcing non-STEM fields and their practitioners to the side.

Unfortunately, this creates an academic civil war which need not exist. Slashing budgets in arts, theater, and music in favor of athletics, science, and mathematics only serves to hurt every aspect of an individual’s education. Perhaps the best analysis one can offer is Alison Byerly’s view of the situation as a, “false dichotomy.” (Klebnikov) The president of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, may have bias due to her holding a B.A in English, a M.A. in English, and a Ph.D. in English, but her analysis of the fate of humanities in our education system is more poignant given such a pedigree. In a lecture panel entitled Humanities in the Digital Age, Byerly notes that, “the humanities [much like liberal arts in general] is often defined by what it is not. It is not practical. It is not useful. It is not something that will necessarily get you a job.” (MIT World) And unfortunately she is not wrong. Increasingly, employers are hiring STEM focused college graduates on a more regular basis than those who studied liberal arts. This perpetuates the issue at not only a social level, but a legal level. Legal trends follow socioeconomic trends in almost every instance (civil rights, marriage equality, alternative energy, etc) and, unfortunately, the liberal arts seem to be no exception.

Thankfully, the legal tide is not unopposed. In September, seven students from the Detroit public school system sued the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, and multiple education officials at the state level. The suit alleged that, "[T]he state has functionally excluded Detroit children from the state's educational system" and that, "Instead of providing students with a meaningful education and literacy, the state simply provides buildings — many in serious disrepair — in which students pass days and then years with no opportunity to learn to read, write or comprehend ." (Chambers)

Regardless of where you lie on educational standards and who is meant to uphold them, this is a very real issue. The complaint, filed on behalf of the students by the Los Angeles-based legal organization, Public Counsel, asserts that literacy is one of the unalienable rights protected by the Constitution, citing both the 14th Amendment and the US Supreme Court case, Brown v Board of Education.

The 1954 decision, which is responsible for the desegregation of schools in the deep south, only served to put a bandage on the issue. As the justices stated in their key holding, "We believe that... segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive[s] the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities." Once one includes the 14th Amendment, Sec. 1, there is a clear standard for the equal opportunity of education in the United States which must be upheld at the local, county, and state levels. Unfortunately the lack of clarity on what constitutes the standard necessary for equal education allows the state of Michigan to ratify the 1963 version of their Constitution. In this version, Article 8 - Education, Sec. 2 stipulatesthat,"The legislature shall maintain and support a system of free public elementary and secondary schools as defined by law. Every school district shall provide for the education of its pupils without discrimination as to religion, creed, race, color or national origin." Further reading of Article 8- Education, Sec. 3 lends credence to the suit by stating, "Leadership and general supervision over all public education, ..., is vested in a state board of education. It shall serve as the general planning and coordinating body for all public education, including higher education, and shall advise the legislature as to the financial requirements in connection therewith." The notable absence, again, is what the standard is and who establishes said standard.

In Michigan HB 4822, the Michigan legislature established a precedent for such standards up to and including the third grade as defined by the State Board of Education. In fact, the sponsor of the bill, Republican Amanda Price, is quoted as saying, "[A]t the time, 30 percent of Michigan third-graders have not been afforded the gift of literacy," (Globe Newswire) meaning the pure aim of the bill was to guarantee a certain level of literary achievement by elementary students up to the third grade. The standard, rated as 'proficient', is defined by the state Department of Education in the document 'English Language Proficiency Standards for K-12 Schools.' Listed as Level 5 (or Proficient by the Federal NCLB Categories), the standard says, "Students at this advanced level have demonstrated English proficiency as determined by state assessment instruments (English Language Proficiency Test - ELPT). They are expected to be able to participate fully with their peers in grade level content area classes. The academic performance of these students is monitored for two years as required by federal law." So there is a state precedent for the practice of guaranteed literacy, it just has not reached the secondary education level yet. One may assume that, as time passes, the great barrier erected at thethird gradelevel will lead to greater literary proficiency at the secondary and post-secondary educational levels. However, a study published in 2013 by Julie A Antilla, a Master’s student at Northern Michigan University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Language Arts Teacher Education, contradicts such a misconception. In her abstract, Antilla claimsthat,"Ensuring that early literacy practices occur, especially reading aloud to a child, will not only prepare a child forkindergarten,but will affect their literary success throughout their entire education and even into adulthood." (Antilla 4)This is substantiated by the 2005 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress)report which showed that only 3 out of 10 eigth-graders in the United States met reading proficiency standards. (Jones R.) What does this mean? It means that without regular, interval based analysis of literary achievement throughout the developmental years of our youth, we should expect to see a populace in which 70% (or more) of grown adults are incapable of advanced English skills. Since communication (reading, writing, etc) is a cornerstone of our society, this is a major roadblock to advancement and leads to not only over-simplified detailing of major social and political ideas, but hinders our capability to interact with others on a meaningful level, especially where language barriers are concerned. How can one expect immigrants to fully grasp the English language when our own population can’t even pass an 8^th grade reading test in their native tongue?

Unfortunately, there is no real precedent for the government, federal or otherwise, to ensure literacy among the people of the United States. In fact, we see the highest literacy rates in countries which have current Communist regimes or were formerly Soviet Bloc countries. North Korea, for example, boasts a 100% literacy rate among individuals 15 and older as reported by UNESCO. The Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania as well as former Warsaw Pact nations Poland, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine all sit at 99.8%. Cuba, Russia, Turkmenistan, Slovenia, and Belarus, all of which have ties to the former USSR, sit at an adult literacy rate of 99.7%. In fact, the only countries were once part of the Soviet system that do not have literacy rates reported by UNESCO of at least 94.5% are Austria and the Czech Republic, both of which self-report literacy rates of at least 98% in adults. To put this in perspective, the global reported average literacy rate sits at 86.3% and the United States, which often touts its own educational capabilities and success, maintains a self-reported literacy rate of only 86%. The study, conducted in April of 2013 by the US Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, found that 32 million adults are illiterate. Of those who can read, only 13% of the population, the same fraction which attain at least a Master’s degree, are capable of a ‘proficient’ reading level. The definition, given by the National Center for Education Statistics, reads that individuals who are proficient in the English language are capable of, “skills necessary to perform more complex and challenging literacy activities.” These skills and examples of the skills in use include:

This list, essentially, lays out what it takes to be a fully inferential, independently minded individual in the 21st century. Without these skills (skills which 87% of the US adult population do not possess), it is no wonder why current education standards are subpar and why a state level education board, with the full backing of a government which represents the 9^th largest state in the Union, is fighting 7 school children. Unfortunately advancement of a society is measured in literary, scientific, and ethical capabilities. By limiting even one of those factors, you stagnate progress and limit the overall potential of a civilization. In this case, we can see the limitation of literacy as a driving force behind not only the most recent election outcome, but movements such as Black Lives Matter, mass indoctrination of the Church, and an overall downturn in the economic and social state of a country which promises freedom and liberties to all but puts an asterisk on the whole idea by limiting these promises to those of dogma-fueled, conservative, Anglo-Saxon backgrounds. Literacy, as argued by the state of Michigan, seems to be a privilege which is granted to individuals to keep them out of the school-to-prison pipeline.

In the same 2013 study mentioned previously, the USDE and NIL found that of the 14% of Americans who are considered illiterate, there is a disproportionate number of minorities represented. Using the most recent census data (collected in 2010), we find that the US population of 308,745,538 people is 63.7% Caucasian, 12.2% Black, 4.7% Asian, and 16.3% Hispanic. The remaining 3.1% of the population is various Native, tribal, and Polynesian groups which fall outside of the big four. However, the skewed illiteracy rates show a grim picture in regards to the educational potential of minorities in the US. Of the aforementioned 32 million illiterate Americans, 41% are Hispanic (roughly 26% of the Latin community), 24% are black (approximately 20.4% of the black community), and 13% are Other, non-white races (about 57.7% of their total population). This is in comparison to the 9% of illiterate citizens listed as white which accounts for only 1.46% of the Caucasians living in the United States. When one takes into account the incarcerated individuals in the US, an unfortunate and systemized pattern seems to appear. Though correlation does not mean causation, 2010 Census data showed a disproportionate number of Blacks and Hispanics were incarcerated (40% and 19% of the total prison population respectively) when compared to non-Hispanic whites. Once we include the educational achievement of inmates, the overall trend sharpens even more. Found on page six of a report entitled “Education and Correctional Populations” published in 2003, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a branch of the US Department of Justice, found that male inmates between the ages of 20 and 39 were, “[M]arkedly less educated than their counterparts in the general population.” (BJS 2003) The full table, found below, shows the educational attainment of a given population when compared to race and incarceration status.

* - Individual earned a bachelor’s degree or higher

Though not immediately evident, there is a definitive correlation between academic achievement and the likelihood of an individual entering the prison system. All three groups’ incarcerated populations comprised of at least 88.5% which had a high school diploma or less in regards to the level of education attained. Compare this to the NIL/USDE study which found 70% of US inmates are illiterate, and the correlation between education/literacy and social outcome is evident: education and literary capability are indicators of future educational and social outcome.

Why, you may ask, is any of this important? I’ll answer that in two ways. First, with a question: Why are you able to understand the information which lay before you? Second, but most important, is because of the driving power of language proficiency and basic literacy in regards to political, economic, and social power. Because, as we see many times over in not only movies and novels, but history, language is a tool and a weapon. We see this in the Orwellian great, 1984, and times over in regimes spanning from modern Communist dictatorships such as North Korea to medieval powers such as the Catholic Church and the Papacy. Each of these examples uses some form of literary restriction, either through purposeful maintenance of substandard academic arenas or the heavy editorializing and censorship of speech and written communication, to ensure the typical citizen is either incapable of complex thought or expressing such thoughts without massive repercussions. Even today, it is understood that the Soviet system of education, though overwhelmingly successful, attempted on numerous occasions to either subdue or amalgamate working populations into the Slavic state through purges, genocide, and the educational doctrine of the Cyrillic alphabet. Though not as thorough as the New Speak attempts found in 1984, the USSR was widely successful simply because the individuals in power knew the limitless potential of human communication and restricted it to keep the masses in line. Though I hope that the general population of the United States will avoid such a nightmare, I do feel as though a bureaucratic version of the Soviet Bloc has already been installed and will prevent social advancement in this nation for years to come.

SOURCES

• Crum, Maddie. “The U.S. Illiteracy Rate Hasn’t Changed in 10 Years.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 6 Sept. 2013.
• Harden, Set. “STATS| Illiteracy Statistics and Demographics.” Statistic Brain, US Department of Education, National Institute of Literacy. 3 Sept. 2016.
• UNESCO. “Education.” Education, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2016.
• Jones, R. (2007). Raising the Literacy Level Among Teenagers: Trying to Teach Every Child to Read by the End of the Third Grade Never Really Worked. The Education Digest, 72(5), 34-40.
• 347 U.S. 483. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. 17 May 1954, www.princeton.edu/~ereading/Brown1.pdf.
• Antilla, Julie A. “THE EFFECTS OF EARLY LITERACY DEVELOPMENT ON ACADEMIC SUCCESS IN THE EDUCATIONAL SETTING AND IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERS AND TEACHERS.” Northern Michigan University, 2013.
• Chambers, Jennifer. “State Says Literacy Not a Right in Detroit.” The Detroit News, 21 Nov. 2016.
• Chambers, Jennifer. “Suit: Detroit Schoolchildren Denied Right to Literacy.” The Detroit News, 13 Sept. 2016.
• Globe Newswire. “Michigan Governor Signs Groundbreaking Early Literacy Law.” ExcelinEd, 6 Oct. 2016. Also See: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/michig...
• Harlow, Caroline Wolf. “Education and Correctional Populations.” U.S. Department of Justice - Bureau of Justice Statistics, Jan. 2003.
• HB 4822. House of Representatives of the State of Michigan. 2016. House of Representatives of the State of Michigan
• Knoema. “Czech Republic Literacy Adult Literacy Rate, 2012-2015.” Knoema, 2015.
• Michigan Constitutional Convention of 1961. “State Constitution - Constitution of the State of Michigan (1963).” Michigan Legislature - Home, State of Michigan, www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(rp5nn1pp2bfcdbj3adifkhad))/mileg.aspx?page.
• Michigan Department of Education. “English_Lang_153694_7._Proficiency_Standards.” Michigan Department of Education, Apr. 2004.
• Myers, Peter. “Can the Soviet Education System Help Developing Countries Now?” Master of Development Practice, Berkeley MDP.
• NCES. “National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) - Scoring &Amp; Performance Levels - Performance Levels.” National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) - Scoring &Amp; Performance Levels - Performance Levels, National Center for Education Statistics, nces.ed.gov/NAAL/perf_levels.asp.
• Sakala, Leah. “Breaking Down Mass Incarceration in the 2010 Census: State-by-State Incarceration Rates by Race/Ethnicity.” Breaking Down Mass Incarceration in the 2010 Census | Prison Policy Initiative, Prison Policy Initiative, 28 May 2014.
• “Text of the 14th Amend States Constitution.” United States Statutes at Large, vol. 14, Little, Brown and Company, New York City, NY, 1866, p. 358.
• US Census Bureau. “US Census Bureau 2010 Census.” 2010 National Census of the United States and Puerto Rico, US Census Bureau.
• Klebnikov, Sergei. “Liberal Arts vs. STEM: The Right Degrees, The Wrong Debate.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 19 June 2015.
• Byerly, Alison, and Steven Pinker. “Humanities in the Digital Age.” 20 Oct. 2010, Cambridge, MIT, MIT World.