Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.
If you don’t understand, start walking further away from the cities.
If you still don’t understand, you’re not done walking.
There’s a slight gradient in literacy when looking at grade level but it’s not really accurate with illiteracy. Seems cities can still have a considerable population that can’t read.
Home schoolers/child abusers are everywhere.
Note: Not talking about legitimate, regular curriculum, “online school” for kids that can’t attend normal school for whatever reason, (e.g. bullying, immunocompromised, etc). I’m referring to religious/cult garbage home schooling stuff that doesn’t teach kids much of anything. Parents that put girls through these programs often end them at the fifth or sixth grade (because that’s all they need to be “good wives”).
If you think the problem is in the countryside, you’ve never been to New York City, and particularly the Bronx.
I grew up in New York city, and lived in the Bronx. Most of the people living there are literate in their mother tongue, less so in English. Is that what you were trying to say?
No. What I meant to say is that native English speakers in the Bronx have poor literacy rates.
https://www.norwoodnews.org/bronx-barriers-literacy-challenge/
To add to this, I think people often underestimate how “easy” it can be to function in society without being able to read well. I know that some folks who either don’t read at all or read at a very low level have just gotten used to interpreting the world around them without the language part. For example, visually recognizing a username and password field on a website and knowing what they’re for, or recognizing the symbols and colors used for certain objects or meanings, all without the actual words needing to mean anything to them for them to understand what it is and what to do with it. And for those who can read at a 5th or 4th grade level (and would thus be included in the stat mentioned in this post), they’re likely then very capable of reading and understanding the majority of text they’re going to come across in their day-to-day lives.
Of course, I don’t want this to sound like I’m saying being illiterate is easy, I’m sure it creates MANY barriers and difficulties for the person, but I do think humans are also flexible and resilient, and are able to survive using other cues.
It sounds so much harder than just reading.
But I believe it. I work in law and often need clients to respond in writing to questions (so we have a record of their answers). The barely-coherent poorly-spelled responses we get are astonishing - and often from pretty well educated, smart people with high level jobs (after all, they can afford a lawyer).
You have it backwards actually. You need to walk further into the cities to see the really poorly-educated.
Here’s the actual data. Look at Illinois for example. All the rural counties are right around 8% functional illiteracy. Then Cook County (Chicago) is literally double at 19%. The trend seems to repeat in every state. Queens and Brooklyn are the most illiterate parts of NY, while far-away Ontario County is the most literate.
The only real exception is in the Southwest. California’s most illiterate county is rural Imperial County with a whopping 41% illiteracy because of all the immigration.
Most rural people hate me and want me to be murdered after I’m publicly humiliated.
I live in a rural area and I am just really tired of having to hate all of my coworkers. They’ll all try to rant at you unless they know you’re lgbt, in which case they’ll never talk to you and report you for everything.
So I am a researcher by trade in this field, got a PhD, and develop these kinds of stats (at a more local level). I also have taught basic adult literacy for about 15 years. I think the poster was likely referring to an NCES stat.
We tend to think of adults with low English literacy as people who dropped out of school or never went. We also tend to think “illiterate” is binary, you can read or you can’t. But the definition is based around grade-level reading (what can you identify and synthesize from standardized text in English in a given time frame) and inclusive of a broader population. We’re talking about people who can’t pick up a copy of USA today and tell you the main idea of a front-page article. They can drive, they can work, etc. So they get along and this issue get ignored.
For example, some stats on illiteracy will count “non-participants” among those who can’t read/write, but this includes people in the study with cognitive disabilities or language barriers to the point that they can’t take the reading test. The share of U.S. adults who are functionally illiterate in English includes some non-native English speaking adults and also a couple generations of folks with reading diasbilities who passed through school, AND people who didn’t read for myriad other reasons.
I have tutored older adults learning to read/write for many years and have met a lot of people who ran businesses or raised families or worked full careers before learning to read. Adaptable and clever bunch. And even many U.S.-born native English speakers who got shuffled through high school despite serious disadvantage and/or disabilities.
the definition is based around grade-level reading (what can you identify and synthesize from standardized text in English in a given time frame) and inclusive of a broader population. We’re talking about people who can’t pick up a copy of USA today and tell you the main idea of a front-page article.
Purely anecdotal, but I know someone who is a tenured professor at a university that will flat out refuse to answer any question that has too much supporting detail around it. As in, if you say “for this part of the assignment, I’m doing…” and proceed to describe your attempt at problem solving over four or five sentences, asking if what you’ve done is correct or close to it, and he will simply respond with “there’s too much here to unpack, sorry,” and refuse to answer the question. But if you do it in person, like verbally read out the same paragraph you wrote, he can understand and answer it. There’s other things, too. He can type out simple sentences, but has a very poor grasp of spelling, frequently getting very simple words wrong (think different versions of there, their, and they’re). It’s genuinely baffling how he got to that point, but he also hasn’t ever really published material and it kinda makes sense why. Dude has a doctorate in a STEM field and I think the reason for that is that he can understand mathematics, but literally can’t understand complex writing. Any idea that takes more than a single sentence to explicate just evaporates out of his head.
I’ve never seen anything as extreme as you describe, but when I took the GRE I met a guy kind of like this. After you finish the exam it gives you an estimate of your score, but your real scores are sent to you weeks later. On the way out some guy asked me how I did (fairly well but not 97% plus on anything). He was like “oh damn if you don’t get above 95% on math then you can’t go to grad school in STEM lol”. I asked him what he got in the reading and writing and he said <33% “but that isn’t important for grad school” lmao
I do have to wonder how he ever got through his doctorate. Reading is like the second most important skill for physicists, and writing isn’t too far down the list either. Maybe it’s different for mathematicians and/or other stem fields, but unless he’s a super-genius, he’d be confronted to the need to read articles/material at some point, no?
Very interesting read! I’m from Germany and taught myself English. I’m currently at a C1/B2 level (it’s a European standard I think?) and consider myself good enough to move through English speaking countries independently just fine.
I’m basically studying English every day by reading and watching YouTube exclusively in English. Love it!
It’s a shame that many people don’t bother honing their language skills.
Didn’t you have English classes at school? I have also significantly improved my English through English media such as reddit, youtube, movies, books etc. But I don’t know if I would have been able to do that without learning basic English at school.
Yes, I did attend English classes at school. English was my major for all of my time at school and the classes have definitely helped me throughout all of this.
However, refining and honing are most certainly my own doing. If it wasn’t for the fact that I regularly consumed English media, I never would’ve gotten this good at it.
That’s really impressive, I do wish I took learning another language more seriously when I was younger. Everyonce Ina while I try to dig back into it but lose motivation for one reason or another.
What did you find to be the most helpful starting out?
With English, finding the motivation is easy, since pretty much all media, be it movies or games, is in English. I learned the basics in school, but most of my vocabulary is from games.
I have been thinking of learning fourth language, but it’s hard to find a good enough reason for it. Maybe I should just change games to appropriate language? At least it would improve replayability, since 90% of the plot would be missed.
I have tutored older adults learning to read/write for many years and have met a lot of people who ran businesses or raised families or worked full careers before learning to read. Adaptable and clever bunch.
I feel like I’d like to hear stories about this. But I’m unsure what to ask for specifically.
Because the government, federal and state level (especially conservative) hate public education and fight to defund it as much as possible. Largely because an educated populace is a dangerous populace. Especially when your political platform relies on identity politics, culture wars, cheating, screwing over the poor, opposing minorities, religious fundamentalism, and any other regressive, oppressive bullshit you can think of. They want stupid voters that they can point at “the enemy” and pit against each other to distract them from facts, all so they can stay rich and powerful.
It’s because a lot of conservatives believe in a really screwed up, masochistic, bastardized version of Christianity that prioritizes vengeance, punishment, and anger. It ignores the love, kindness, acceptance, and mercy (ie the actual teachings of Jesus) that make society work well.
So, when kids come home with these new ideas about kindness and acceptance, because being kind to a gay classmate is a great way to demonstrate the love real Christianity teaches and society values, the parents freak out. They push to ban books, fire teachers, and move their kids to private schools that more match their hate filled, divisive worldview. Education polluted their child with abnormal, liberal indoctrination, like being kind, empathetic, and accepting of others.
I an attempt to steer their children back to their core values of hate and divisiveness, they lash out. Any pushback the parents feel in response becomes persecution, because of course “the world” would disagree with them. They’re the TRUE Christians afterall. So they isolate in ecochambers, and they get more hateful. Any difference of opinion is met with derision and just simply validates their position. And despite being the TRUE Christians, or REAL conservatives, they become less Christian and less conservative every day, instead just becoming these weird, evil, empty husks of people with no real values or ideals outside of hate.
No single answer is comprehensive enough to explain the low literacy levels in the US. That’s because some of the contributing factors include:
- Parents with little schooling.
- Lack of books and reading encouragement at home.
- Dropping out of school.
- Difficult living conditions – including poverty.
- Learning disabilities.
Each of these topics has social and political implications and we, as a society, have made choices that privilege the rich and the least vulnerable. Our immediacy leads us to focus on inflation rates, employment, and reelection (don’t get me wrong, these are essential points). But we should also seek solutions to bring parents back to school, campaign for more books at home, and improve schooling to prevent dropout.
The discussion of U.S. illiteracy gets gloomier when we consider the differences between “literacy” (reading, writing, and math skills) and “functional literacy” (the practical use of these skills to manage daily life and improve socioeconomic well-being).
There’s a long and rocky road to reverse this picture, and some of the possible solutions to promote higher levels of literacy in society should take into account:
- low income resources
- stigma and shame
- lack of awareness
- limited access to education
- technological barriers
- limited funding for literacy programs.
So, how is it possible that roughly 50% of Americans can’t read above a 6th grade level and how are 21% just flat out illiterate?
All of the above, and probably more!
Your response is definitely the best one here. There’s just so many factors at play, and Covid was the perfect storm that amplified all of them.
COVID-19 turned into a perfect storm as most schools were unprepared for remote learning. Add to that the fact that many students had no access to a reliably fast internet connection and the whole literacy picture gets rather bleak. Thanks for sharing your views on my perspective.
Part of the reason so many can’t read above a 6th grade level is that they are always written to on that level. Anything written for any commercial purpose is always written at a low level so any idiot can understand the menu / read the packaging / consume the magazine ad / whatever. Commercial writers write for the lowest common denominator and to an extent, news media do as well.
So a 6th grade reading level is really all you need to get by. Unless you actually read books or opt for The Economist or something else that doesn’t assume you’re a moron, 6th grade level is all you’re gonna see.
There’s some utility in this. Simpler language is also lowest-common denominator for second-language-speakers, of which we have many. Another reason to use it.
It’s also important to note that a low reading grade level for writing is not “bad writing.” Most novels fall somewhere between 5th and 7th grade reading levels. Stephen King is typically around 6th grade, and Jane Austin was often at about 5th grade, for examples. There are plenty of writers who convey complex stories and themes at even lower grade levels, and it’s not unheard of to read a complex story at even a 4th or 3rd grade level. In many contexts a low grade level does not mean the content is simple or dumbed down–it’s just a measurement of the conveyance or style of the writing.
I tried to read Gravity’s Rainbow a few times. Is Pynchon some kind of genius or is he just an asshole?
Also looking at you James Joyce.
I found the first part of Gravity’s Rainbow a very fun ride. But I took a break at that point as it is very slow to read and I wouldn’t want to interrupt it mid-part. I was impressed that it was able to explain mathematical concepts in simple yet correct ways, which is rare in books let alone books this crazy.
Finnegans Wake on the other hand I haven’t even given a serious try. Spelling words as you see fit is too much for me.
