[wysiwyg]

Most European countries have reformed their spelling...

I noticed that no English-speaking countries, i.e. England, Scotland and Ireland, were mentioned. What's the literacy rate in the UK? I'll bet it's better than here. What about Canada?

Why can't you people just admit that it's the horrible government school systems here that are keeping the population illiterate. Also unable to do basic math, little knowledge of history or science, etc. It isn't the language, it's the "skool sistem."

[Spellfix]

From The London Times, March 26, 1999, "Literacy Crusade Aims to Hit Home", table "Literacy Skills":

Percentage of adults at lowest literacy level:

Poland 44
Ireland 24
Britain 23
United States 22
...
New Zealand 20
Australia 17
Belgium 17
Canada 17
...
Germany 12
The Netherlands 10
Sweden 7

Not all countries have good schools (and remember Poland was Communist until recently, so don't blame the Poles or their spelling.) And of course we have more minorities than some, and of course it is not fair to blame our schools because millions of illiterate people stream across out southern border.

Yet the fact remains that English speaking countries have higher rates of illiteracy than *similar* countries with rational spelling systems. Roughly twice as high. So of our 40 million functional illiterates, 20 million or more need not be.