Hardly are we given time to grasp the Census Bureau’s new facts about
illiteracy in the United States before the Bureau of Education gives us
its own interpretation of some of them. Illiteracy, as viewed by the
Census Bureau, means inability to write on the part of those ten years
old and over. As a nation the number of illiterates among us decreased
from 10.7 per cent of the population in 1900 to 7.7 per cent in 1910. In
spite of this decrease a bulletin by A. C. Monahan of the Bureau of
Education refers to the “relatively high rate of illiteracy” in the
country and says that this rate is due not to immigration but to the
lack of educational opportunities in rural districts. The percentage of
rural illiteracy is twice that of urban, although approximately
three-fourths of the immigrants are in the cities. Still more
significant is a comparison between children born in this country of
foreign parents with those born of native parents. Illiteracy among the
latter is more than three times as great as that among the former,
“largely,” says Mr. Monahan, “on account of the lack of opportunities
for education in rural America.”
The decrease in national illiteracy during the decade 1900–1910 was not
only relative but absolute, despite the growth of the population. In
1900 the figure was 6,180,069. In 1910 it was 5,516,163. But while
illiteracy among the total population was decreasing, that among the
foreign born whites remained almost stationary. In 1900 the percentage
was 12.9, in 1910 12.7. Among the whites born in this country the
decrease during the decade was from 4.6 to 3 per cent. Illiteracy among
the Negroes showed a decrease of almost one-third. In 1900 44.5 of the
whole Negro population could not write; in 1910 the percentage was 30.4.
The distribution of illiteracy between the sexes was very even. Among
males it amounted 7.6 of the total, among females to 7.8. There was less
of it among white females, however, than among white males, the
percentage for the former being 4.9, for the latter 5. White girls and
women born outside of this country show more illiteracy than men and
boys of the same class, but those born in the United States show less
than native males, as follows:
_Whites_ _Male_ _Female_
Foreign born 11.8 13.9
Native 3.1 2.9
The New England and the Middle Atlantic groups of states changed places
in the illiteracy column between 1900 and 1910. At the former period New
England was fifth and the Middle Atlantic states, comprising New York,
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, fourth, but by 1910 New England had
displaced the latter group. In both years the West North Central,
comprising Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Nebraska and Kansas, showed the least illiteracy of any of the
geographical divisions, while the East South Central, comprising
Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, had the worst record,
The section known as the West almost caught up with the North during the
decade, the respective percentages being 4.4 and 4.3.
Mr. Monahan’s bulletin goes briefly into the whole rural school problem.
The author found 226,000 one-teacher schoolhouses in the United States,
of which 5,000 are log buildings still in active use. Although more than
60 per cent of the children in the United States are enrolled in country
schools, the rural aggregate attendance is only 51 per cent.
With the help of recent appropriations made by Congress the Bureau of
Education has undertaken to make a careful study of the needs of the
rural schools, and the bulletin just issued is one of the first definite
results of the work.