I would put literacy right in front because apparently there’s a disturbing amount of people who don’t know what words mean almost.
To understand anything, you need a sense of literacy.
21% of American adults are illiterate (54% read below a 6th grade level)
17% of Canadian adults are illiterate.
I keep coming back to these points as it’s important context when understanding the news.
That’s… horrifying. I had no idea it was that high. I have to wonder how anyone can be illiterate, after watching my kids learn to read, and how little effort it took (on my part I mean, they were putting effort into it, because they wanted to)
I should point out that a portion of the stat comes from immigrants who are fully literate in their native language.
National literacy as a topic forms an interesting picture that I don’t fully understand.
