The chicken or the egg?

It's hard to put into words the severity of the challenges we face at the academy-the largest...Literacy. It is as simply put as the old phrase which comes first, the chicken or the egg? It is commonly overlooked in the school systems for the sheer fact that students are able to fly under the radar when classrooms are full of trouble makers, bullies, and distractions. But, in a classroom of five...another story. Where do you begin when a seventh grader is passing through middle school, yet she cannot read or write. I mean, really cannot read or write. Two, three and four letter words look like a jumbled mess to her. And, who's responsible? Where do you begin? What comes first?
We're making chicken omelets!