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Posted on 08/07/2026 12:04:42 PM PDT by Retain Mike
Nearly one-quarter of U.S. adults—21%—are illiterate, and 130 million people can’t read a simple story to their children or sound out more than a few basic words. The problem isn’t confined to high school dropouts, those with disabilities, and non-¬English speakers. It affects university students, working professionals, and those who grew up speaking English at home. It goes beyond the inability to enjoy books, skim websites, and write emails. Medication instructions, ingredient labels, and posted warnings can conceal deadly risks from nonreaders.
The problem starts in elementary school, where a battle over how to teach reading continues to rage and fewer parents reinforce reading at home. By the time students reach high school, those who can’t read start to fall behind in other subjects. The ripple effects of insufficient learning extend into college, where many students who struggle with literacy don’t understand that they have a problem. They can read basic sentences but miss complex concepts. Once they reach adulthood, people who can’t read are dependent on an informal network of literacy classes to help them catch up.
On the school side, Rein says some teachers aren’t willing to have the hard conversations that come with holding kids back. The earlier, she says, the better. The younger the student is, the less severe the social consequences of repeating a grade. Even so, data on the effectiveness of such interventions is limited. One study found that children held back in elementary grades are 60% less likely to graduate high school than similarly achieving peers who were not held back. On the family side, Rein says she sees fewer and fewer parents encouraging literacy by reading to their kids at home.
(Excerpt) Read more at wng.org ...
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“Reading is fundamental”
Get rid of those mobile phones, and teach students to read books with phonics! Teach writing and arithmetic, too!
Back in the day, I had books around at home, and taught myself to read by age 4! Few kids can learn to read that young, but starting to read by age 6 is reasonable. High school students should read classic novels, and most 18-year-olds should be ready to do college-level work. That’s a lot more important than using a mobile phone!
Perhaps the USA needs a new “Sputnik”, to get education up to what it should be!
Computer programs like Word don’t help. Witness that my post included the word “summery” thanks to spell check.
Part of reading is meditation. Also, growing up reading the right stuff doesn't hurt--with parents!
And if the brain plasticity for language acquisition is during ages 4-6 or so, that's when kids should be learning a second language.
Last verse of the Old Testament says something about the hearts of the fathers turned to the children and the hearts of the children turned to their fathers. There's a great line in the film by Andrei Tarkovsky, The Sacrifice where a child who has undergone throat surgery speaks his first words, "In the beginning was the Word, what is that, Papa?"
How many ways are there to spell "circling the drain"?
LOL. I retired in 2001, so I think most of my contemporaries in the workplace could write and read what was written to them.
Hm?....I wonder what reading scores of children and adults would show, if grouped by zip code?
It was pre-Sputnik men who put a man on the moon.
That might be an acceptable proxy.
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