54% of Americans read below a sixth grade level. 21% are functionally illiterate

[DocWatts]

(Mods : could you please move this to Society and Politics)

According to the US Department of Education:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States

Yet another way that the United States is failing its citizens (add that to the list next to a predatory health care system, failing infrastructure, and a predatory economic system).

Might help contextualize the widespread lack of basic media literacy in the 'States, why a large segment of the population is easy prey for political propaganda and conspiracy theories, and why predatory advertising is so successful.

Edited December 29, 2021 by DocWatts

[itachi uchiha]

I read somewhere that less than 3% read books a lot

[Happy Lizard]

@DocWatts ( skimmed through the article) 

Aren't they also taking into account a large number of immigrants and/or working class ? I get that the numbers are worrying, but the fact that the US is an immigrants country makes a lot of people who come to the US both 1) adult 2) not proficient English writers/speakers ( probably due to not being educated within the US school system). I've worked with many people to count whom I would say where either non-English speakers -yet are working- or barley making it. 

I would assume that they where also comfortable not working to improve their reading/writing skills, just because the US allows this somehow. 
 

I literally know a person who complains frequently about how she can't communicate well at her job because of her poor English, yet she would not take no one's advice to try and turn on the news or watch a sitcom for example to improve her English.

 

[Tim R]

@Happy Lizard

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179.pdf

[Tim R]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2020/09/09/low-literacy-levels-among-us-adults-could-be-costing-the-economy-22-trillion-a-year/?sh=7fb8e8014c90

Quote

Low Literacy Levels Among U.S. Adults Could Be Costing The Economy $2.2 Trillion A Year

 

[itachi uchiha]

@Judy2 in other countries the percentage of readers is even less

Edited December 29, 2021 by itachi uchiha

[Lyubov]

 

This is common especially in southern states. There are huge racial disparities with education. 

[DocWatts]

@Happy Lizard

While I think you're on to something (as English as a second language is over-represented in these figures), I think has far more to do with inter-generational poverty. Because public schools are funded though local property taxes, the quality of the education one receives growing up is tied to the zip code that one is born to.

There are a lot of areas in the country where you'd be forgiven for thinking that you're in a third world country rather than the richest nation on earth, and that's reflected in the inequalities of the US education system. 

 

Edited December 29, 2021 by DocWatts

[Leo Gura]

Once you understand how dumb the average human is, all of life makes sense

[DocWatts]

@Knowledge Hoarder

The notion that knowledge consists of 'one damned fact after another' is an impoverished view of what knowledgeable is.

A more holistic approach, where one has a sense of why something is worth knowing and what broadly speaking are the dynamics behind it, is more worthy of taking up mental hard disc space than memorizing endless lists of facts and figures.

[UnbornTao]

I mean, yes.

However, what turns me off the most is not their ignorance itself, but their unwillingness to admit it and to learn new things, which I guess is part of the ignorance.

For me, it’s about their general close-minded attitude and their mindset towards honesty and learning.

Edited December 29, 2021 by UnbornTao

[LSD-Rumi]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Once you understand how dumb the average human is, all of life makes sense

The problem is when you are dumb, you cannot see it

[mememe]

1 hour ago, Knowledge Hoarder said:

This brings an interesting question to the table: at which point does remembering facts become useless?

Looking at the girl in the video, most people would probably judge her as stupid. And indeed, one should educate him/herself enough to gain some general understanding of the reality, and not be a total moron. That's why primary schools exist.

However, some facts are considered to be useless, and easilly "Googlable". Where's the line between the useless and the usefull?

on a collective level the line is an idiocracy.

on the information level it is when you google the facts and find as many misinformative facts as you find informative facts. 

and the most useless fact knowledge is if you can’t conclude anything practical from the facts. its like having money but the store is empty. that’s the line.

[Hardkill]

I thought that according to the US education laws, every adult has to have at least a high school level of education. So, how are the majority of Americans throughout the whole country not able to read at the high school level as a bare minimum?

[Thought Art]

ffs 

[Leo Gura]

I think that illiteracy rate is very skewed though because most of those people are probably recent and even illegal immigrants.

[Carl-Richard]

7 hours ago, DocWatts said:

@Knowledge Hoarder

The notion that knowledge consists of 'one damned fact after another' is an impoverished view of what knowledgeable is.

A more holistic approach, where one has a sense of why something is worth knowing and what broadly speaking are the dynamics behind it, is more worthy of taking up mental hard disc space than memorizing endless lists of facts and figures.

Both deep and broad knowledge requires knowing some facts, but simply knowing facts outside the context of some greater understanding is indeed an impoverished approach to knowledge.

[Carl-Richard]

10 hours ago, Tim R said:

@Happy Lizard

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179.pdf

I checked out the demo test for the survey they used in the study: 

"OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)": https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/onlineassessment/demo/ 

It's pretty basic stuff.

[mememe]

let’s suppose this is not about being actually illiterate but about the ability of reading fluently. 

it’s like with skills like drawing, or maths getting lost over a course of time because the training stops. my mathematical skills are definitely rusty for example even memorizing telephone numbers my phone does for me, so my contact with numbers is usually using a machine for calculation.

same goes for reading, my online reading time is much higher than my reading time in paper book time.

this might be already a bit alarming for a self actualizer but it gets even more alarming if you compare the book reading time of children of the current child generation to past child generations. its also about the fun factors in reading and the phantasy factor in individual imagination processes connected to literacy that get lost, and stuff like epical conclusions.

main paper article folowing (who‘s reading a news paper weekly by the way?)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/appsblog/2013/sep/26/children-reading-less-apps-games

Edited December 30, 2021 by mememe

[Chakra Lion]

46% of Americans read above a 6th grade level, and 79% are literate. I think those are great numbers. Compared to where we were just a few decades ago. Perspective is a game changer.