[EinNYC]

Absolutely disgraceful, but hardly surprising. Not since the libtards have gained the catbird seat for themselves in all levels of education. I started out teaching biology in high school---the anatomy of the body, how muscles/nerves/bones/organs work, biochemistry of living things, reproduction of various organisms (including humans), DNA, ecology, etc.---and ended my teaching career teaching something which could have been called "How Do You FEEL About Biology", consisting mostly of ecology, DNA technology, and a smattering of the stuff that really is the heart of biology, listed above. Just a tiddy bit, to say we "learned" about it. No wonder most of them had to take remedial courses in nearly everything in college. Then we taxpayers get to foot the bill for their education in K-12 and then for the college subsidies covering the EXACT SAME MATERIAL until they can manage an actual college level course.

Of course, I was reading before I entered kindergarten and glommed the 3" thick Collected Works of Shakespeare my brother got for his bar mitzvah, since he never touched it. I read that big fat book from cover to cover, hooking me on Shakespeare for life---at the age of 8. If I ran into a word I didn't know, we had things laying around called dictionaries. Today's kids look up words on their phone, if they bother at all. Their vocabularies consist of those few hundred texting abbreviations---LOL, BRC, LMAO, etc. They actually tried to turn in term papers using those! And it was always the TEACHERS who got slammed for trying to reject such pathetic work or give authentic grades--those truly earned.

Yep, we will soon be ripe for conquer without the enemy having to fire a single shot, thanks to the libtards.

[angry elephant]

I was like you, started reading at three and a half - both my parents were educators. That was a long time ago when educators really educated.

Read Dr. Zhivago when I was twelve, read shorter books, usually one a day in junior high, majored in English and philosophy in college. Read lots of books both assigned and on my own. In English and in French.

After my useless college degree I went to a voc-tech to learn a craft to actually earn a living.

Still read a lot both for work and lots of fiction. Especially like both Lee Child and Lincoln Child as well as Clive Cussler. All of them have action and suspense. Probably should re-read the classics, but just seem more interested in escapist fiction for the last few years.