School reforms now could help children to read better and stem the approaching Maelstrom of delinquency. The overall literacy rate has declined alarmingly from 97 percent in 1950 to less than 80 percent today. Illiteracy, experts say, aggravates crime because the frustration in failing in so key an area hurts the student both intellectually and psychologically. A substantial number of educators lay the blame for illiteracy at the doorstep of a new method used to teach reading.
Advocates say children learn to read with less harm and demand on their self-esteem.