One of the most painful consequences of illiteracy is the sense of personal shame that often accompanies being unable to read and write in a society in which literacy is taken for granted. In a letter written in response to a 1978 television show on the subject of illiteracy in Canada, a woman stated:

I am writing on behalf of my husband, who is not able to read or write. He was born and raised in the backwoods and did not attend school. This fact bothered and embarrassed him all his life. Since he knows the bush so well, he has been able to make a living guiding and trapping. He is partially retired now, only traps and has time during the summer months. But I do think sometimes that when things go wrong he blames his troubles on the fact that he isn't able to read.5

It is clear that illiteracy can impose serious hardships and limitations on Canadian adults in various contexts of their daily lives. However, in spite of this, the resources which are committed to adult literacy and basic education opportunities in Canada are only a fraction of what would be required to adequately respond to the need. As a Canadian expert on illiteracy noted in 1979, "on any scale of national or provincial priorities, adult illiteracy does not even appear on the list". 6 In a sense, this neglect should not surprise us for, as the history of movements like those for women's liberation, gay liberation and civil rights for racial and ethnic minorities has shown, long-standing victimization, suffering and alienation on the part of a particular minority or category is seldom sufficient in itself to provoke public action on a serious social problem. The dimensions of consciousness and power are crucial, and in this regard, illiterate adults form a classically silent minority.

Illiteracy and Poverty

Even if the response to the problem of adult illiteracy has never been adequate, a number of public and private organizations and groups are working to meet the need. Indeed, such efforts extend as far back as 1899 in Canada. 7 However, where action has been taken, it has rarely been solely in response to the problem of illiteracy itself. Instead, the primary meaning and significance of illiteracy has been seen in terms of its empirical association with another problem that of poverty. That is, the stratification of literacy and illiteracy closely parallel social class stratification---with illiteracy heavily concentrated among those at the bottom of the class structure---and efforts to respond to illiteracy have generally emerged as a secondary consequence of strategies to deal with poverty and poverty-related problems like unemployment, the growth of welfare spending or social and political unrest 8

This generalization holds true for much of the history of literacy education in Canada, and it is particularly pertinent for the period from 1960 to the present, which forms a distinct era with regard to public action on illiteracy. While prior to 1960 the extent and severity of the problem was hardly recognized outside of the adult education profession,9