Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.
I’m not an expert, but I have to imagine it’s in relation to the fact that public education in the United States tends to be rather underfunded. Teachers often don’t have all the resources to do their jobs effectively, and many resort to paying for resources out of their own pocket.
Pair that with the fact that the average salary for a teacher in a public school is almost criminally low for a position that has a massive impact on our social outcomes, and you get students that are disengaged and overall not as prepared as they could be.
This is all just what I’ve gathered from reading news articles over time. I’m sure there are several other factors at play.
It has far more to do with parents than teachers for basic literacy. If a family/child doesn’t read at home, the child will never get enough practice to achieve a high level of comprehension.
My grade 5 child already reads at a grade 9 of 10 level, but we read together every night and have done so for the last decade of his life. His room has more books than toys.
His average schoolmate has an Xbox in their room instead of books. He complains about it all the time. The electronic device in his room is his kindle.
Cuba didn’t achieve 98% literacy by having a country of concerned parents. They had a massive education push with basically unlimited support from the government.
Placing the responsibility of America’s failure to educate its populace on individuals is honestly kind of insidious. America needs to dedicate resources to education. Period. Their failure to do so is why so many Americans are dumber than stumps.
They didn’t achieve that rate through childhood education investmemt. They spent a few years forcing (as in it wasn’t optional) adults to become literate too. At the peak about one in ten cubans were involved in teaching others, they even closed schools early at one point and literally drafted 100k students to go teach adults.
The parents weren’t needed because an even higher power stepped in to mandate things and actually could and did enforce it.
The US government doesn’t have the political authority to mandate such a thing, the rights of individuals are very strong in the US, including the right to be ignorant. Parental involvement is the only realistic option to improve the current situation.
To add on to that, without publicly funded education those illiterates will only perpetuate and exacerbate the problem. If one generation is poorly educated their children will have even more difficulties. And their children even worse. And then they are stuck forever because without education it is uncommon to have enough money to afford a good one for their kids.
If education is privatized and costs money no poor and uneducated person can ever climb out of their misery on their own.
That’s great that you’ve fostered a love for reading, I believe that’s an incredibly important thing for a young mind.
But i also don’t think not allowing video games at all isn’t necessary. I grew up reading and playing online games, it’s possible to ensure a balance. And today online games are a huge part of the socializing that happens. It sucks to sit at the lunch table and have your friends talk about conversations they had that you couldn’t be a part of.
I played video games with all my boys for hours yesterday, they just don’t have unrestricted access to them, or private access in their rooms.
I agree online socializing is important, but I also have to make sure they aren’t watching Andrew Tate videos (yes, this is unfortunately a thing for some of the 11 year old boys on his sports team)
Help them build a good foundation and they’ll end up building a good house for themselves.
This can’t be true.
I’m not American but does 6th grade mean about 11?
I think these numbers are inflated, but the problem is still pretty bad.
Part of the problem is we have some politicians here that thrive on uneducated voters. Uneducated voters also tend to be more racist, and racists are a really reliable voting block if you speak their language. Also, they tend to believe “news” that corresponds with what they already believe, so social media and telemarketing works really well on them. Abortion and contraception bans increase the number of children born into poverty, who won’t get a decent education and will rely on what they learn from their parents or TV.
So education funding rarely gets increased.
That’s correct (11 years old) - I do believe this, though (or at least that it’s mostly accurate). I don’t think we get a really clear picture of this group online - they’re probably not going to be posting a lot on the major text-focused social media networks (including facebook, for example).
To me it seems like it’s not so much about city vs. rural but about rich vs. poor. One thing that’s really fucked up to me is how school funding in the US is generally heavily based on the property taxes from the immediate area - so areas that are already rich get the best schools, and poorer areas have worse. I don’t believe the situation will change anytime soon, unfortunately.
Kids in America usually enter a grade at age (grade + 5). Depends on when their birthday lands in some areas. For example, my kid was born in early September and the cutoff is Sept 1. His Kindergarten (grade 0) didn’t actually start until his birthday, so he entered at age 6.
If you don’t understand, start walking further away from the cities.
If you still don’t understand, you’re not done walking.
There’s a slight gradient in literacy when looking at grade level but it’s not really accurate with illiteracy. Seems cities can still have a considerable population that can’t read.
Home schoolers/child abusers are everywhere.
Note: Not talking about legitimate, regular curriculum, “online school” for kids that can’t attend normal school for whatever reason, (e.g. bullying, immunocompromised, etc). I’m referring to religious/cult garbage home schooling stuff that doesn’t teach kids much of anything. Parents that put girls through these programs often end them at the fifth or sixth grade (because that’s all they need to be “good wives”).
If you think the problem is in the countryside, you’ve never been to New York City, and particularly the Bronx.
I grew up in New York city, and lived in the Bronx. Most of the people living there are literate in their mother tongue, less so in English. Is that what you were trying to say?
No. What I meant to say is that native English speakers in the Bronx have poor literacy rates.
https://www.norwoodnews.org/bronx-barriers-literacy-challenge/
To add to this, I think people often underestimate how “easy” it can be to function in society without being able to read well. I know that some folks who either don’t read at all or read at a very low level have just gotten used to interpreting the world around them without the language part. For example, visually recognizing a username and password field on a website and knowing what they’re for, or recognizing the symbols and colors used for certain objects or meanings, all without the actual words needing to mean anything to them for them to understand what it is and what to do with it. And for those who can read at a 5th or 4th grade level (and would thus be included in the stat mentioned in this post), they’re likely then very capable of reading and understanding the majority of text they’re going to come across in their day-to-day lives.
Of course, I don’t want this to sound like I’m saying being illiterate is easy, I’m sure it creates MANY barriers and difficulties for the person, but I do think humans are also flexible and resilient, and are able to survive using other cues.
It sounds so much harder than just reading.
But I believe it. I work in law and often need clients to respond in writing to questions (so we have a record of their answers). The barely-coherent poorly-spelled responses we get are astonishing - and often from pretty well educated, smart people with high level jobs (after all, they can afford a lawyer).
You have it backwards actually. You need to walk further into the cities to see the really poorly-educated.
Here’s the actual data. Look at Illinois for example. All the rural counties are right around 8% functional illiteracy. Then Cook County (Chicago) is literally double at 19%. The trend seems to repeat in every state. Queens and Brooklyn are the most illiterate parts of NY, while far-away Ontario County is the most literate.
The only real exception is in the Southwest. California’s most illiterate county is rural Imperial County with a whopping 41% illiteracy because of all the immigration.
Most rural people hate me and want me to be murdered after I’m publicly humiliated.
I live in a rural area and I am just really tired of having to hate all of my coworkers. They’ll all try to rant at you unless they know you’re lgbt, in which case they’ll never talk to you and report you for everything.
Income disparity, communities where education isn’t supported, underfunded education, book burnings, tv/internet/gaming they’ve all had an impact. Add covid to the mix and burnt out parents and it’s all coming to a head
Hard to use the internet and game without being able to read. I’d say overall both of those would trend an average consumer’s reading ability past 6th grade level, but maybe I’m underestimating what qualifies as that level.
In my experience, there’s also a poverty component. Some families may have to move into a shelter in a different school district or even state. Within that you can stay at a shelter for a short and long time. Education is also not usually a focus of the family, or theres not enough time. So you have a situation where you are constantly moving places and schools, and your family doesn’t take any time to teach reading outside of school for whatever reason.
