ClydeStyle

Tag: Illiteracy

  • Reading is still fundamental … well, in some places it is.

    Within the next 180 days, I’m sure I will have more commentary on the troubles our nation faces. There are many lessons to unpack from the last election, and I want to make sure we are seeing things clearly.

    I wanna start with this very basic necessity that has alluded to many Americans. Canada’s literacy rate is at 50 percent. More specifically, in Canada, half of the country has a literacy rate below high school level.

    Literacy rates are measured by the percentage of people in a given age group who can understand simple statements about daily life, and Canada is at 50 percent.

    Russia is almost at 100 percent literacy, and they have been that high since the 1950s. In fact, in 1939, the Soviet Union had 89.7 percent literacy amongst people aged 9 to 49.

    Russia has always had a strong education emphasis throughout its history. I don’t want to embarrass us any further by telling you some of the rates in other countries like Asian or Indian, but I bet you can guess. The numbers sort of follow the math and science rates.

    In the US, when your literacy rate is low, it means you lack critical thinking skills, which means you can be easily manipulated. You won’t know you’re being manipulated until it’s too late. It also means that you won’t make as money as others who can read better. A study showed that reading is more linked to higher pay than education.

    Consider these stats: In 2024, the illiteracy rate in the United States was 21 percent, meaning that 79 percent of adults are literate, but 74 percent of them are below 6th grade! (54 percent of adults have a literacy level below 6th grade, and 20 percent of adults have a literacy level below 5th grade).
    Low literacy levels can cost the US up to $2.2 trillion per year.

    Is it possible that your government wants you illiterate? I mean, it would be quite easy to convince you to do certain things and believe that down the road it will benefit you in some way. How difficult do you think it is to practice real democracy when you lack critical thinking skills?

    Last question: How many books did you read last year?

  • Something needs to be done about education in America

    Ever since the agricultural age moved on to the industrial age, America has been dumbed down. The benefits of a democracy are that one person represents one vote, and if your voters are informed, democracy can be a beautiful thing.

    In our country, many votes are wasted because the people vote with feelings and not facts. We allow talking points to tell us how we really feel.

    I literally hate when rich talking heads try to tell us what the rest of America wants or is interested it. We can are about abortion, gun violence, police shootings, and gas prices, and nothing ever gets done. But with education, it seems as though there is a deliberate effort to keep our education weak.

    The Pew Research Center recently published our educational status to the rest of the world. The U.S. ranks an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science.

    Seriously???? Are we really saying that the best we can do is double-digit numbers? We can’t make the top 10? Top 5? Based on the resources we have, we are not even close to representing our potential. And I believe that is deliberate!

    We compare ourselves to ourselves. Our kids are ranked in the middle to lower range internationally, and this is just not acceptable. In America, 54 percent of adults have a reading level below 6th grade. On average, about 21 percent of Americans are illiterate.

    I get it. If we were to fix the education system, then those who stay in power and are greedy would not be allowed to maintain their status. We need a healthy prison system so that the small percentage of people who hold stocks make money. The rich also need the poor as you can’t maintain one without the other. So, the education system has become a pipeline for poor and disenfranchised folks.

    The revolution can’t come fast enough!