Wow, this is depressing
According to this article, Americans are reading less than ever! Yay!
Some numbers: 54% of 9-year-olds read every day "for fun." 72% of high-school graduates are "deficient" in writing skills, according to employers. That percentage really depresses me, because adults don't care about proper writing (or speaking) skills, so why should they teach the kids? And maybe the scariest number: the percentage of adults with bachelor's degrees and proficiency in reading prose dropped from 40% in 1993 to 31% in 2003. Conservative talk radio people like to bash colleges because of their liberal bias, but the fact that fewer people are getting advanced degrees should disturb even them, even if mouth-breathers would keep their audience numbers up.
This is really sad. We read to the kids every day, and Norah, particularly, loves reading her own books (she has most of them memorized, so it's not really reading, but it's a start). Even Mia has memorized a lot of her books, and we're going to push her hard to read because it's so important.
Explain to me again why we're so upset about gay marriage when are children are growing up stupid?
Some numbers: 54% of 9-year-olds read every day "for fun." 72% of high-school graduates are "deficient" in writing skills, according to employers. That percentage really depresses me, because adults don't care about proper writing (or speaking) skills, so why should they teach the kids? And maybe the scariest number: the percentage of adults with bachelor's degrees and proficiency in reading prose dropped from 40% in 1993 to 31% in 2003. Conservative talk radio people like to bash colleges because of their liberal bias, but the fact that fewer people are getting advanced degrees should disturb even them, even if mouth-breathers would keep their audience numbers up.
This is really sad. We read to the kids every day, and Norah, particularly, loves reading her own books (she has most of them memorized, so it's not really reading, but it's a start). Even Mia has memorized a lot of her books, and we're going to push her hard to read because it's so important.
Explain to me again why we're so upset about gay marriage when are children are growing up stupid?
Labels: Americana, Culture, Education ranting, My daughters
posted by Greg | 4:09 PM
5 Comments:
Because "we" (the people who are upset about gay marriage) are ourselves stupid in the first place.
I can disagree with your position without saying you're stupid. If you're upset about gay people getting married, that's fine, but I'm not entirely sure why that's such a big deal when it doesn't affect anyone. An entire generation growing up without knowing how to read or write well is greater cause for concern, I think. You may disagree.
I have no problem with gay marriage, Greg, but it DID seem like you were making the analogy Chance was alluding to.
Anyway, for the people who DO care, gay marriage is a moral issue. (Of course, for some, it's the sign of the apocalypse, which should make them happy.)
Whereas an ignorant American population is a largely compliant population; we don't want fpolks getting too uppity.
Hmmm. I didn't mean to make any analogy, so I apologize. My point was: here is A) gay marriage or B) the depressing lack of reading among young people. A lot of people get worked up over A), but not many people seem to care about B). You can worry about gay marriage all you want, but it seems like this is a more important topic. Again, I don't think you're stupid if you are against gay marriage (I disagree with you, but that's why this is America), but like a lot of issues, I wonder why that gets more ink than seemingly more important things.
I also just realized that in a post about reading and writing, I used "are" instead of "our." Man, I'm an idiot.
I get it Greg. Where are our ("our" meaning the collective citizens of our country) priorities? I am learning that very few people are rational or consistent with their opinions. I think education is far more important than other hot button issues, but I doubt that's the point. I am starting to believe that there is a plan to keep the masses undereducated, unsuccessful, and reasonably poor. It's profitable to sell cheap goods and services to consumers who qualify for high interest credit cards -- just as long as they keep paying that bill!!
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