- Joined
- Jan 28, 2018
I read the other day that only 79% of all adult US citizens are literate, and from the 79% of americans able to read, 54% read below a sixth grade level (this is ages 11-12). I didn't know what this actually means either, it means this:
Key Characteristics:
- Text Complexity:
- Struggles with longer sentences, multi-syllabic words, or abstract ideas.
- May find it difficult to grasp texts requiring inference, critical thinking, or context clues.
- Vocabulary:
- Limited familiarity with academic or domain-specific terms (e.g., science or history terms).
- Relies on everyday language and simpler phrasing.
- Comprehension:
- Difficulty summarizing, identifying main ideas, or connecting ideas across a text.
- May struggle with informational texts (e.g., manuals, news articles) or literary devices like metaphors.
- Fluency:
- Reads slowly, with frequent pauses or errors, impacting overall understanding.
Practical Implications:
- Daily Life: Challenges with tasks like filling out forms, following written instructions, or understanding healthcare information.
- Education/Work: Limits access to higher-level coursework, job opportunities, or career advancement.
- Social/Emotional Impact: May lead to avoidance of reading-related tasks, affecting confidence or engagement in learning.
but it gets worse, of these 54%, about 20% read below the level of a fifth-grader, which means:
Key Characteristics:
- Text Complexity:
- Struggles with paragraph-length texts or passages with moderate complexity.
- Difficulty with sentences containing subordinate clauses (e.g., "Although it rained, we played outside").
- Limited ability to process nonfiction texts (e.g., science or social studies textbooks).
- Vocabulary:
- Limited grasp of academic or grade-appropriate words (e.g., "analyze," "compare," "environment").
- May rely on context clues for basic unfamiliar words but miss nuances or technical terms.
- Comprehension:
- Trouble identifying main ideas, supporting details, or the purpose of a text.
- Struggles with inferences (e.g., understanding a character’s motivation or predicting outcomes).
- Difficulty with multi-step instructions (e.g., recipes, classroom assignments).
- Fluency:
- Reads slowly, with frequent pauses to sound out words or re-read sentences.
- May mispronounce common multi-syllabic words (e.g., "celebrate," "experiment").
Practical Implications:
- Education: May fall behind in subjects requiring reading (e.g., science, history).
- Daily Life: Struggles with tasks like reading children’s chapter books, understanding bus schedules, or interpreting simple graphs.
- Social/Emotional: Potential frustration or avoidance of reading-heavy activities (e.g., schoolwork, games with written rules).
So if he's part of half of all US citzens there's a good chance he literally doesn't understand everything that is written here. This is dire. For comparsion, the literacy rate in my country is 99%.
EDIT: I accidentally the copy pasting and half the formatting was missing, whoops
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