Discover a Powerful New Way to Guarantee Your Child
or Adult Friend Can Easily Learn to Read With This
Revolutionary Method With Proven Results

In the same way that July 4, 1776 began our
freedom from British rule, July 4, 2005, the
release date of a breakthrough new book, can, with
your help, begin our freedom from the expense and
problems of illiteracy.

Human nature being what it is, we usually do not try to solve a problem until we learn that it is a very serious problem that affects us and our loved ones. Whether you know it or not, functional illiteracy probably affects some of your loved ones. If you or any of your loved ones have school-age children, functional illiteracy will soon affect them. It definitely has an adverse affect on your finances NOW. Nothing will motivate you to discover the facts in this website more than learning how serious the problem really is. The very best way to do that is to click the "Test Literacy Knowledge" button on the right and accept the challenge of answering the 18 questions you find there. Some of the answers will be found on the page you are now viewing, but for a really complete understanding of the problem of functional illiteracy, take the test. You will, no doubt, be shocked as you see the proof and the source of the information provided by clicking the link on the very top line of the answer sheet.

(Note: The first four paragraphs are a short summary of the most important facts presented in this website; the details proving these four paragraphs follow immediately.) It is shocking, but it has been proven true: only a little more than half of the students in today's U.S. elementary schools learn to read and write well enough to be functionally literate, and less than one percent of adult non-readers get the adult education they need to become functionally literate after initially leaving the U.S. school system. The most extensive study of U.S. functional illiteracy ever commissioned by the U.S. government proves that 46 to 51% of U.S. adults read and write so poorly that they earn significantly below poverty level wages—an average of only $3796 per year when the threshold poverty level for an individual was $7363. More than 31% of the 90 to 94 million functionally illiterate U.S. adults are in poverty. All studies following this 1993 study used a much smaller sample size, used less statistically rigorous methods, and none of them revealed a statistically provable improvement in literacy. The only reason we do not see 46% or more of adults in poverty because of illiteracy is that most households have more than one employed adult and because most illiterates receive financial assistance from the government (your taxes and mine), family, friends, and charitable organizations.

Not only does illiteracy severely restrict their wages, Jonathan Kozol’s book, Illiterate America, shows that they must constantly endure financial, emotional, and physical problems far worse than most of us realize—at least thirty-four types of serious problems. Furthermore their illiteracy is costing each of us who can read at least $3700 per year in higher taxes for government programs for illiterates and for truancy, juvenile delinquency, and crime related to illiteracy and for higher costs for consumer goods due to illiterates in the workplace.

Let’s End Our Literacy Crisis is a book recently published by American University & Colleges Press, an imprint of American Book Publishing, detailing a proven method of ending illiteracy which has never been tried in English even though it has been (1) recommended by dozens of scholars for over 250 years, (2) implemented in several other countries smaller and larger than the U.S. and in both advanced and third-world countries, (3) proven effective in over 300 languages other than English, and (4) all reasonable objections to the proposed solution to illiteracy have been thoroughly debunked by several educational and linguistic scholars. An honest appraisal of all the details of our proposal explained in our book will answer any reasonable objections you may have. Dr. Michael F. Shaughnessy, Professor of Special Education at Eastern New Mexico University read our book and emailed the author "...I agree with you 100%." Our book was one of six finalists (out of 49 Education/Academic entries and a total of 1000-1100 entries) for the USABookNews Best Book Award and one of eight Education finalists (1540 total entries) for Forward Magazine’s Book of the Year Award.

If enough people know about and act upon the proposals in our book, hundreds of millions of English-speaking people around the world (well over 90 million in the U.S. alone)—who otherwise wouldn’t—will learn to read. Will you help?

Do we really have a wide-spread literacy problem in the U.S.? Reports were released in 1993, 1999, 2001, and 2003 proving that we do. Some U.S. newspapers reported the results of the 1993 report, but there has been little or no media or public attention given literacy since. Although almost every American can at least read a few words, if someone can only read 1200 to 1500 simple words they learned by sight but cannot “decode” words they have not learned, they are functionally illiterate and cannot get by in our complex society as well as they should.

The most extensive and statistically accurate study of adult literacy ever done in the U.S. was commissioned by the U.S. government. It was a $14 million, five year study involving lengthy interviews of 26,700 adults. It was statistically balanced for age, sex, ethnicity, and location—urban, suburban or rural—in several U.S. states. The test results were verified by another testing agency, but no outside person or group had access to the study until it was completed.

The report titled Adult Literacy in America, which is available for free inspection and download at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93275.pdf, divided the interviewees into five competency levels, depending upon how well they could respond to material they were given to read. From 21 to 23 percent—40 to 44 million adults—were in Level 1, the least competent, and 25 to 28 percent—50 million adults—were in Level 2. A careful mathematical correlation and analysis of data in the 198 page report proves that Level 1 adults earned an average of only $2105 per year and Level 2 adults earned an average of only $5225 per year. Level 3 and Level 5 yearly earnings averaged $9,090 and $24,379, respectively. The threshold poverty level for a single individual when this report was completed was $7363 per year. Many Level 1 and Level 2 adults were unemployed for all or a large part of the year prior to their interview and earned an average of only $238 per week (Level 1) or $281 per week (Level 2) when they worked. Level 3 through 5 adults earned an average of $487 per week during this time period and worked all or most of the year prior to their interview. This means that from 46 to 51 percent—90 to 94 million adults—not only earned less than poverty level wages, they earned significantly less than poverty level wages. The reason we do not see 46 percent or more of adults in poverty is that most families have more than one adult in the family who is employed and that low-income families get governmental assistance (i.e. from those of us who are taxpayers) and charitable assistance from friends, relatives, and elsewhere. If all employed adults in a family are functionally illiterate, they are almost certain to be in poverty.

The Literacy in the Labor Force report, available for free inspection and download at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/1999470.pdf, proves that more than 40% of the employees in U.S. businesses are functionally illiterate. There have been literacy studies after this study and the study mentioned in the previous paragraph, but they used a much smaller database and a less rigorous statistical methodology. The 2003 report, mentioned previously, showed that programs touted as "educational improvements" over the previous twenty years had produced no significant change in U.S. education and reported that "many policymakers and employers say that schools are in as much trouble as ever."

If you question the truth or significance of any of the above, please click on the "Test Literacy Knowledge" button in the left column. The above information answers some of these questions. The source of the data used to answer each of the questions is included. If you want to know why you didn't realize how serious the English illiteracy problem really is, click on the "Why You Didn't Know" button in the left column.

How Will YOU Benefit
From Ending Illiteracy?

• You will benefit if you are concerned that a friend, relative, or associate is—or after leaving school will be—functionally illiterate. The financial, emotional, and physical problems and suffering of illiterates is much worse than most people realize—there are at least thirty-four types of serious problems that illiterates must endure. And with over 90 million functional illiterates in the U.S., many of the people YOU know are—unknown to you—functionally illiterate.
• You will benefit if you object to the expense of at least $3700 each year as a result of illiteracy. This is for (1) taxes for government programs illiterates use, (2) higher prices for consumer goods resulting from the increased costs of recruiting (since so many are unqualified due to illiteracy), training employees in basic skills they should have learned in school, and for preventing and correcting the mistakes and inabilities of illiterates in the workplace, and (3) taxes for the truancy, juvenile delinquency, and crime directly related to illiteracy.
• You will benefit if you have financial interest in a business or organization—this includes not only those in which you have invested time or money but also your place of employment. Illiteracy in the workplace affects almost every business or organization, some of them seriously. In addition to the costs as in the bulleted item immediately above, illiteracy cuts the potential customers for written materials almost in half and hurts businesses and organizations because of competition with more literate workers in foreign companies. The January 2006 U.S. trade deficit was $65.7 billion, worse than any previous month. After the brief improvement in February, experts expect the deficit to continue its trend of a steady increase.
• You will benefit if you feel compassion for hundreds of millions of English-speaking people around the world who desperately want to learn to read English. English is spoken by more people as a native or as a second language than any other language and is now essentially the only global language in the world. For members of language groups which do not have a written language or whose country is so poor that very little is printed in their native language, if they cannot read English their choice of reading material and their opportunity for a good education is extremely limited.
• Almost everyone will benefit to some extent by the ability to communicate through written materials with those who do not speak their language. The increase in understanding between people groups which will result will help in easing some of the international conflicts.

Why Hasn’t the Problem
Already Been Solved

Our literacy problems have not been solved because most of us do not understand—or believe—the following.

• The vast extent of illiteracy in the U.S. Warnings have appeared over the last thirty years. Unfortunately people tend to ignore problems until they can no longer deny that the problem has reached crisis proportions. Most of the public has paid little attention to literacy.
• The vast cost of illiteracy, both in economic loss and in human misery.
• The vast increase in the need for literacy. Manual-labor jobs are rapidly being replaced by jobs requiring reading skills. World trade is rapidly becoming more competitive. Due to communication technology advances, U.S. citizens now compete not only with other U.S. citizens but also with people anywhere in the world who have the same technological abilities, as Thomas L. Friedman's book The World is Flat (economically speaking) dramatically proves. Based upon Friedman's study of the economy and technological advances of areas around the world, unless our educational system improves, the U.S. may well be the economic equivalent of present third-world countries in as little as twenty years.
• The great difficulty of learning to read English, especially as compared to other alphabetic languages.
• The great effect that the difficulty of learning to read English has upon literacy.
• The near impossibility—due to human nature and economic realities—of solving illiteracy through standard means. Standard means of improving literacy include improved teaching methods, better textbooks, better teacher training, and better student motivation techniques. The most visible methods used in the last eighty years have been the following. (1) Return to phonics teaching, which will help but will not solve the problem because only about 20% of English words are spelled phonemically. This is true if you only allow one specific spelling for a sound, as linguistic logic demands. (2) Raise standards, which succeeds only through "flunking out" the poorer students. (3) Spend more money on education. The U.S. already spends more per pupil than any other nation. A statistical comparison of statewide education costs for the District of Columbia and the fifty states shows absolutely no correlation to the educational accomplishments achieved.
• The ways to solve problems are not always carefully researched. People naturally expect that our leaders will study all of the ways of solving a serious problem and choose the best solution. History tells us that this is not always true in the more serious and the more complicated problems. Often as soon as one or two solutions have been found, the one that seems best is implemented. Far too often, the range of possible solutions is limited by erroneous ideas of the limits within which a solution must be found. This has been verified in numerous tests of intelligence and creativity. Many problems of this type cannot be solved, not because of any lack of intelligence but because the persons taking the test assumes that certain types of solutions are not allowed, even though those solutions are not only allowed, they are the best solution. This is exactly the reason we have not solved our literacy problems, as will be explained in the next section.
• Perhaps the main reason is that no one has been willing to upset the “status quo” by attempting the logical solution to CURE illiteracy rather than to continue to fight the SYMPTOMS of illiteracy. Unfortunately, many people would rather continue to suffer the disadvantages of the known than to boldly anticipate the advantages of the unknown.

How Can We Totally and Permanently
End English Illiteracy?

Let’s End Our Literacy Crisis is a revolutionary new book written to correct a linguistic error made in 1755 by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Instead of freezing the spelling of sounds—as an alphabetic system should—his dictionary froze the spelling of words. Since English is a mixture of words taken from eight languages—those of every nation that invaded and occupied Great Britain—this mistake was serious. Dr. Johnson used the spelling that was (or that he mistakenly thought was) the spelling from the original language. What was bad in 1755 is much worse now since the pronunciation of words changes with time, but the spelling of those words has not changed, making reading more difficult.

There is not even one spelling rule in English that does not have exceptions—and many of the exceptions have exceptions. Professor Julius Nyikos of Washington and Jefferson College found that there are more than 1768 ways of spelling forty sounds in English—if he had used an unabridged dictionary in his research instead of six desk dictionaries there would be even more!

This is why students must learn, one-by-one, every word in their vocabulary, either by rote memorization or by repeated use. This is why the most extensive study of adult literacy ever commissioned by the U.S. government proved that 46% or more of U.S. adults cannot read and write well enough to hold an above-poverty-level-wage job. This is why most of the U.S. adults who do learn to read well enough to be functionally literate require at least two years of reading instruction to become literate, while the students in more than 98% of all other alphabetic languages learn to read in less than three months—Frank Laubach, founder of Laubach Literacy International, taught adult illiterates to read in 300 languages other than English and proved this to be true. In fact, Rudolph Flesch stated on pages 167-168 of his book Why Johnny Still Can't Read that Russian schoolchildren are taught to read 46 of the 130 national languages in first grade! There are no reading classes, as such, in Russian elementary schools after first grade.

Instead of arguing over whether to use phonics or some variation of whole-word instruction—all previous and present teaching methods use some variation or combination of the two—why not solve the problem logically? Correcting the root cause of the problem instead of fighting the symptoms of the problem is far easier than anyone would ever dare to dream.

As explained in the previous section, people have assumed that the spelling of words is unchangeable—outside of allowable limits—even though a perfect one-spelling-for-one-sound spelling system is the only solution which will totally and permanently solve our literacy problems. Furthermore, all the reasonable arguments against spelling reform—which is the obvious solution to the problem—have been completely disproven.

Dozens of linguistic and educational scholars of English and of other languages have been recommending for 249 years the solution that is proposed in Let's End Our Literacy Crisis. Other nations both smaller and larger than the U.S. and both advanced and third-world nations have successfully simplified their spelling, but it has never been tried in English. The most impressive change was that of the nation of Turkey. They changed from an Arabic script to a western sytle alphabet during the span of one summer!

Sir James Pitman, in his book Alphabets and Reading, states that an unknown but sizable percentage of students will never become fluent readers of English within present school systems. They can only become literate after a year or more of intensive one-on-one tutoring with a private tutor. This is even true of some of our most intelligent students. Are you willing to gamble that this does not apply to some of your loved ones? Nothing attempted in the last eighty years—since the problem became more serious—has made a significant improvement in English literacy. Statistics have proven that less than one percent of illiterate adults will ever get enough reading instruction after leaving school to become functionally literate and achieve the equivalent of an eighth grade education. Even an eighth grade education will not get most people a good job.

Let’s End Our Literacy Crisis was published by American University & Colleges Press, an imprint of American Book Publishing. What this amazing book proposes is an extremely simple spelling system. Those who already read English fluently can learn it in less than ten minutes. In fact, numerous people who have seen material written in this spelling system have been able to read it with only an occasional stumble over a word even though they did not know the spelling system.

Research has proven that English-speaking people around the world can communicate quite adequately with 38 English sounds (phonemes). Even people who have not learned the spelling system can read N’wenglish because 81.6 percent of the spellings chosen for the English sounds are the most-used spelling of those sounds in English and all but one of the others—due to one of the many illogical aspects of English spelling—are the pronunciations that people expect for the spelling used. The problem with English spelling, of course, is that there is not only a most-used but a next-most used and a next-most used, etc. Click on the "The Proposal" button in the left column for the proof of how easy it is to learn to read using the proposed system. All beginning readers who are not severely mentally handicapped can learn to read with this spelling system in less than four months.

Although the spelling system is extremely simple, there are many very good reasons for adopting this spelling system, some of which are a little complicated. Therefore anything less than a careful, honest look at all of the reasons could lead to wrong conclusions. A careful, honest reading of the Preface and the text (pages 1 to 212) of Let's End Our Literacy Crisis will convince you that this is the only way to end your unnecessary expenditures for U.S. illiteracy and to ease the severe problems it is causing functional illiterates and causing our nation in world trade and in written communication with English-speaking people around the world.

CAUTION

Since—like most people—you are probably very busy, you do not want to spend any more time reading—or spend any more money—than you consider necessary or rewarding. As a result, you are (subconsciously, at least) looking for an excuse to believe you know all that you need to know about illiteracy after reading this website. Please understand that there are many very important details contained in Let's End Our Literacy Crisis that present a very convincing case for what the book proposes. This website only scratches the surface. Let's End Our Literacy Crisis is a 360 page book, but the text is only 212 pages—the rest is table of contents, appendixes, bibliography, index, etc. Reading the text of Let's End Our Literacy Crisis will take less than eight hours at a normal reading rate. Hundreds of millions of people around the world who speak English but cannot read English (over 94 million in the U.S. alone), if they knew the choice you now face, would beg you to learn enough about solving their desperate situation to be motivated to take the action on their behalf that they are completely incapable of taking. The important thing to remember is that taking the action proposed in Let's End Our Literacy Crisis will financially benefit you and will probably benefit several of your loved ones. It will definitely help our nation in its increasingly fierce trade competition with other nations.

If this website has not motivated you to investigate further, please accept the challenge of clicking on the buttons on the right and reading the information there. Clicking the "Chapter 1" button brings up the first chapter of Let's End Our Literacy Crisis and will require no more than 45 minutes to read at a normal reading rate. If it prompts you to help yourself and your loved ones and hundreds of millions of illiterates, it will be well worth your time.

What People Are Saying
About This Amazing Book

The author received an email from Dr. Michael F. Shaughnessy, Professor of Special Education at Eastern New Mexico university, stating that he had read a copy of Let's End Our Literacy Crisis from a local library and "agrees with it 100 percent." He requested an email interview, which was provided, and he posted the interview on http://www.educationnews.org. To see the interview, click here. To see Dr. Shaughnessy's impressive credentials, click here.

Gary Sprunk, M.A. in English Linguistics, Arizona State University, read a copy of Let's End Our Literacy Crisis that he purchased from Amazon.com and ordered a copy of the workbook. As a result, he volunteered to prepare a software program which will transliterate between English and N’wenglish, the spelling system that Let's End Our Literacy Crisis proposes. He expects to have the program finished early in 2007. He also volunteered to post an article about N’wenglish on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, which he did. When asked to provide a short paragraph about the book, he wrote the following: "Moving 18th century English spelling into the 21st century will help ALL English speakers, from schoolchildren to illiterate adults, and everyone else. All schoolchildren will leap ahead two grades, without the expenditure of billions of dollars. I believe NewEnglish is the best system to write English phonemically, so I am incorporating it into automatic proofreading software that my company is developing. A parallel product is a (free) computer program that will transliterate between English and NewEnglish automatically. To promote this worthy and inevitable development of English, I wrote the article on NewEnglish in Wikipedia. To see the article, click here.

Gary Sprunk
MA English Linguistics, BS Physics-Engineering
CTO, Xanadu Technologies LLC"

Christine Jones is the author of the Mariard Volumes, an exciting and well-written series of science-fiction adventures, as well as numerous other fiction and non-fiction books. She lives in Tasmania, Australia. She read Let's End Our Literacy Crisis and posted very enthusiastic information about it on her website and in an Amazon.com book review. To go to Christine Jones' website, click here. To go to the Amazon.com review, where you can purchase this breakthrough book for the list price of $24.95, click here.

            

Awards won by Let's End Our Literacy Crisis. This amazing 360 page book published July 4, 2005 by American University & Colleges Press, an imprint of American Book Publishing, offers documentary proof that—unknown to most Americans—we now have a very real literacy crisis in the U.S. Almost half of all U.S. adults earn significantly less than poverty-level-wages each year. This is alleviated only by the fact that most families have more than one employed adult and the fact that most low-income families receive governmental assistance—funded by taxes that those of us who can read must pay—or from assistance from private organizations, friends, and relatives. The good news, however, is that there is a proven way to permanently end our literacy crisis that is easier than anyone would ever dare to dream.

About the awards: ForeWord magazine: See http://www.forewordmagazine.com/botya/search2k5.aspx?srchtype=author&srchval=Bob%20C.%20Cleckler This was one of only eight finalist awards in the Education category. There were 1540 total entries in the competition. USABookNews.com:See http://www.usabooknews.com/bestbooks2005awards.html Scroll to the Education/Academics category. This was one of only six finalists out of 49 entries in the Education/Academics category. There were 1000-1100 total entries.

Prove it to yourself: get a copy of Let's End Our Literacy Crisis at the discount price of only $23.70. If for any reason you are not satisfied there is a lifetime, money-back, no-questions asked guarantee.

Click Publishers Direct Discount Bookstore now!

Sincerely,
Taylor Townsend	A
Taylor Townsend	Bob C. Cleckler, B.S.Ch.E
Book Marketing	Author, Let's End Our Literacy Crisis
American University & Colleges Press	Founding Chairman
an imprint of American Book Publishing	Literacy Research Associates, Inc.
	A nonprofit educational corporation

P.S. The extent and seriousness of functional illiteracy are far worse than most of us have realized. Fortunately, the solution is far easier than any of us would have dared to dream. If hundreds of millions of English functional illiterates in the U.S. and around the world knew of the decision you are now facing—responding positively to this website—every one of them would plead with you. They would say, "Give us what may well be our last, best hope for relief from the serious problems stemming from our illiteracy."

P.P.S. Not only can you show compassion and help hundreds of millions of functional illiterates, you can save yourself significant and growing personal financial costs. Will this program work for you? You'll never know unless you click here, buy, read, and apply what you learn from Let's End Our Literacy Crisis.

P.P.P.S. For all those who want to teach (or find a teacher for) someone who cannot read, the Let's End Our Literacy Crisis Workbook will prove invaluable. It provides teacher and student guidelines and additional beginning reader materials. These materials are valuable since they do not have pictures and therefore reduce guessing to a minimum. This is of particular value to anyone who has struggled with conventional English spelling. It also contains a reproduction of the McGuffey's Primer, which was used successfully for many years in the 1800s and is one of the best-selling books of all time. The workbook also contains additional facts about English spelling and a large portion of the last chapter of Dr. Thomas Lounsbury's 1909 book, Spelling and Spelling Reform, which gives a devastating and scholarly rebuttal of all the common objections to spelling reform. The workbook is available as an E-book or as a hard copy. To receive the E-Book for only $5.00 click here.

To order as a 198 page 8-1/2 x 11 softcover book for only $19.95 (shipping charges are included in this price) click here.

P.P.P.P.S. For a more complete description of this very worthwhile humanitarian project, go to my new website, http://learntoreadnow.org or simply click here.

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