Posted on 01/11/2009 8:12:31 AM PST by presidio9
About 14 percent of U.S. adults won't be reading this article. Well, okay, most people won't read it, given all the words that are published these days to help us understand and navigate the increasingly complex world.
But about 1 in 7 can't read it. They're illiterate.
Statistics released by the U.S. Education Department this week show that some 32 million U.S. adults lack basic prose literacy skill. That means they can't read a newspaper or the instruction on a bottle of pills.
The figures are for 2003, the latest year available. State and county results are available here.
"The crisis of adult literacy is getting worse, and investment in education and support programs is critical," said David C. Harvey, president and CEO of ProLiteracy, in response to the finding.
This is about jobs and the economy, Harvey said.
"More than 1 million people lost their jobs in 2008 and the new unemployment figures are the highest in 16 years," Harvey said. "A large number of the unemployed are low-skilled individuals who struggle with everyday reading, writing and math tasks. The administration wants to create new jobs
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hey, I know those people. They show up on FR, post a really hugh and series thread, and then get attacked by viking kitties....and they electemated The One.
As we got older, We read and read and read...Comic books...every chance we got. There was such a mix of characters..we learned all the words. We also read the newspaper...comics first though.
My mom didn't know a word of English when she started school. She learned.
Make English the National Language!! Make the Citizenship test a reading test and a "History Lesson". Require a reading course similar to a GED for VOTERS.
There are illiterate people who do make good citizens...but a citizen and a voting citizen is two different things. It makes many "prey" to theatrical rhetoric...and that's where we are.
While the rest of us jump in the shower....
14%...I think that is hogwash. Some of these scientists are actually the stupidest people alive because they assume and think they know so much when they do not.
Legal immigrants from India and China, for example, certainly have a high rate of literacy; but third-worlders brought here by family reunification/chain migration aren't necessarily literate. Somali refugees, for the most part, aren't functionally literate. Anchor babies often grow up illiterate, and their status as citizens is perfectly legal.
We have plenty of illiterates coming here legally, courtesy of our government.
my father in law suggested that we are as a people headed back to a dark age of illiteracy.
Not to hijack this thread, but I wonder how many of the illiterates are illegal aliens?
I mean, our school systems are bad enough, but allowing the dregs of other countries to invade as well is a killer.
I would say stats on homeschoolers would be about the same as normal students who attend public school because there are numerous homeschoolers who have parents that allow them to play the WII all day long. The students who don’t have active parents who push them in the homeschool curriculum would drop the average as well. I would guess that the smart homeschoolers would be as smart regardless of whether they went to public or private school too. Although, I would bet that private school kids would beat the homeschoolers and public students averages.
14% that voted for Hussein.
I would believe that one after this last election.
BS, I would bet they are counting all the illegals and legals. I hear a tin cup rattle in the back ground.
It’s possible to both watch and enjoy TV and still be an intelligent, informed member of society.
That’s almost twice as many as approve of Congress, isn’t it?
If I could read that I’d be pissed.
the south is being kept intentionally uneducated.
The South also has huge unemployment which could be result of the education problem. South Carolina is ranked third worst in the country on unemployment. However, the blame really can’t be placed on anybody but the governors of each southern state. They should do something about education.
If 14% of adults can indeed not read sufficiently, it is NOT, I repeat, NOT because of the failures of the school system.
It’s because of the failures of THEMSELVES. Bad schools are bad because of bad students.
Go into any inner city classroom - the first thing you’ll notice isn’t the inept teacher, but the crazy ghetto trash kids that don’t give two sh*ts about learning, usually because their mother is a crack whore and their father is absent.
I’m not saying there aren’t bad teachers - but the problem lies in the students and the parents that “raise” them.
But smart, self-sufficient people are far less likely to vote for a democrat. So watch this number continue to grow.
What the hell does that mean?
Ask a kid to spell "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
I told my 7-year-old grandson that I could do it when I was in the second grade. (True story)
It motivated him. He entered the third grade this year proudly being able to spell the word. Not uncoincidentally, he loves Mary Poppins too.
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