"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle's point is that once we have been educated, through schools or our parents, we have the choice to accept or decline different ideas. Perhaps the most important aspect of education is learning to read and write. Literacy is the basis of education and yet not everyone has luck of being literate. In Jonathan Kozol's The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society the author discusses the ways in which illiteracy can be life threatening. By this he does not only mean the fatality to which it can lead to but also how disruptive it is to everyday life. The writer exposes the hazards illiteracy can bring to people's health and also the implications it has on mental well being.
             Kozol describes the ways in which illiteracy can bring health problems to the point of death. In his essay, the author is very concerned about the trouble people who cannot read go through when it comes to medicine or medical assistance. Because "they cannot observe preventive health care admonitions," their physical condition is at risk. They could take drugs that have already expired; they could take medicine to which they are allergic to; or they could take something without reading the warning labels that tell them what to expect. The problems do not stop here. For example, they cannot fill out insurance information that is vital to good service at any hospital. Even calling a hospital or an ambulance can be difficult to an illiterate because the numbers "are too frequently beyond the recognition of non-readers." All these factors come into play and affect the illiterate's physical health, but there are also problems in everyday life and mental stability.
             Through his anecdotes and descriptions, Kozol explains how hard it is to live a normal life when a person cannot read. The essay is filled with short exa...