54% of Americans have a below sixth grade reading level | Hacker News Reader

54% of Americans have a below sixth grade reading level

crossrivertherapy.com

3 pointsSwizec9 comments

The US school system is modeled after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system

The purpose is to indoctrinate and create obedient factory workers. It was never about education to begin with.

oh man this myth again. What use do factory workers have for geometry, history, or other stuff taught in schools? If the goal is to create obedient workers, why not teach them stuff that is actually encountered in a work environment?

This avoids explaining why a student can graduate without being literate, nor does it poke any holes in the argument.

A physicist can give quantum mechanics lectures to kindergarteners, it doesn't mean they will understand or retain any of it. But you can still say your school teaches physics at a very early age. It sounds nice, but doesn't mean anything.

Skimming that Wikipedia article...I'd say it's a bit closer to contradicting your assertion than to supporting it.

It’s always good to know that nothing has changed in 150 years of US education. I’ve got to go saddle my horse now.

Um... the American colonies introduced government funded universal education in the 1600s, before the Prussian system existed. The US never introduced a nationwide curriculum like the Prussian system. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_School_Laws

US federal coordination of educational activities was very weak. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Office_of_Educ...

The US government has never written any policy document identifying 'obedient factory workers' as a goal, in the sense you're talking about. When you went through school, were you trained to be an obedient factory worker, or did you get an education?

The Soviet school system had an explicit goal of creating obedient factory workers. Was that somehow incompatible with higher education?

Back in the 90's, I went through a literacy tutor training program. The trainer told us that the "more educated" local newspaper was written to a 6th-grade reading level. Except for the Sports section, which was written to a 3rd- or 4th-grade reading level.

I wonder how much this can be explained by written English being more difficult compared to other native languages

Misleading title. The title should say that 54% of adults in the US are at (or below) that level, not 54% of Americans or American adults.

That's accounting for immigrants , as exemplified by the quote "34% of the people 18 and older with low literacy proficiency weren't born in the United States.". No shit that someone who came here to be a laborer and might not speak the language well might not read at a high level either. I wonder what the literacy levels for their kids are.

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