Battling the Scourge of Illiteracy - 30 Million Americans Cannot Read, But There Is Hope and Help

Battling the Scourge of Illiteracy: 30 Million Americans Cannot Read, But There Is Hope and Help
CBSNews: Oct 4, 2009 by Byron Pitts

Walter Long is 59 years old and lives in the town outside of Pittsburgh where he grew up. He's got a good job with the county water board, a nice house where he has raised four kids, and a wife who loves him.

And for years, Walter Long also had a secret: He could not read.


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He faked it well, until one night when he was reading - or pretending to read - a story to his four-year-old daughter, Joanna.

"My daughter looked up at me and said, 'That's not the way mom read it to me,'" Long recalls with emotion. "It's still hard to say to a four-year-old, that you can't read.

Lavonne McKinstry drives a school bus for the greater Pittsburgh school system. Ten years ago she would not have had the job because she couldn't read well enough to pass the driving test. Like Long, she hid her lack of reading skills from everyone - even her daughters.

"I was embarrassed, I was ashamed," McKinstry says. "It hurt."

There are 30 million Americans who are functionally illiterate, which means they cannot read well enough to function effectively, according to a federal survey.

"There are 40 percent of our nation's fourth graders who are not reading at basic level," says Emily Kirkpatrick of the National Center for Family Literacy. "Many of those fourth graders are children of the 30 million who cannot read at the basic level." READ MORE !

Harry Smith spoke with author and CBS reporter Byron Pitts about overcoming his childhood illiteracy to become a network news reporter. To read an part of Pitts' book, go to an excerpt of "Step Out of Nothing."