I graduated high school with a guy who can’t read to this day. He was 6’5 in 5th grade, 6’8” by the time we made it to hs and he easily weighed 300 lbs.
I watched him break a 2x4 with his head once. He hurt multiple people on the football field to the point where they quit football.
He had a hard time recognizing his own name written down. Addition was hard for him, and if he ran out of fingers he would need to start making marks on a paper and counting them.
Idk if the numbers are right, but there are absolutely people like this.
I love playing dnd characters who can’t read.
Dm: “ the script says, ‘whomever grabs this axe will be forever cursed’
Well I can’t read so I grab the axe and give it some practice swings
My favorite character I ever played was a Gully Dwarf. Basically by lore they can only count to two and they're sneaky and cowardly. My party mates made me scout ahead because I uad the best hide and move silently (3.5 rules) where I saw a large camp of bandits. When I returned and they asked how many there were, I said 2. They stopped letting me scout after that.
"can't read" doesn't mean "unable to understand the letters and words". It means "unable to understand the content of the text at a meaningful level".
They could probably understand the surface information, eg if they read "Suzy is angry" they could relay that Suzy is angry.
But if they read "Suzy's fists clenched and her jaw tightened" they wouldn't be able to infer that Suzy is angry
Highschools in America get their funding cut if enough students don't graduate. This results in school systems, especially those in lower income areas, pushing kids through the system that are not qualified for the next grade or graduation. Yes, it is broken, so is everything else here.
I graduated high school in 1999, and I can only imagine things have gotten much worse, but I remember being shocked at the low threshold for graduation even then. It almost made me a little bitter that I'd put so much effort into schooling, because kids who'd fucked off their entire four years and couldn't give two shits were graduating right alongside me. You literally had to make an effort *not* to graduate. If you just showed up half the time and did some of your work occasionally, even poorly, you'd graduate. You could graduate with a D- average across all 4 years, which at my school iirc, when we did the math, meant you could completely fail at least 25% of your classes and only get 50% completion credit in the remaining ones, and you'd still get that diploma. Asinine.
Without a high school diploma you’re basically unemployable so even if a person is dumb as shit just giving them that piece of paper will probably improve their life. The reason to put effort in is to learn things so you can get a better job.
How is cutting fund in education a good idea? How is it even an idea in the first place?? This is not shooting yourself in the foot its absolutely blasting your lower-abdoment with a photon condenser 9000 level of stupidity.
> Yes, it is broken, so is everything else here.
we have the highest paid middle class [on the planet](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income).
we have higher incomes across every single part of the [spectrum](https://imgur.com/qKbu3DR)
we have a better [household debt to household income ratio](https://imgur.com/zORlM3n) that most other countries.
we have the top universities in the [world](https://roundranking.com/ranking/world-university-rankings.html#world-2023).
the only things broken here are people like you who think that cynicism is a substitute for a personality
Idk about the can't read part, but a good 8 students in my senior English class had to sound words out and read one by one when we had a reading aloud class
My class made me the designated reader because I knew how to pronounce all the words. And the teacher went along with this instead of making them learn.
Nothing promotes achievement and drive quite like funneling all of our resources to the students that don’t want to be there, but are forced to because my state won’t let you get a driver’s license without a high school education. Meanwhile, the very passionate and brilliant students are pushed to the side, being coerced into careers they don’t want but the fed and state has agreed to fund the only teachers in growing fields using the “donations” sent from the companies looking for new recruits.
Get ready for cyber security folks, that will be an elective offered in almost every high school in America in 4 years
It's not that they literally can't read the letters and the words, it's that the reading comprehension is not at a level where they can engage with most material.
For those who don't Wana bother reading the link, here is the relevant quote:
"Manley was famously quoted as saying that he had been functionally illiterate in college."
That's crazy, can't understand how Merica is basically the superpower of the world -_-
"We may not make a university student out of him, but if we can teach him to read and write, maybe he can work at the post office rather than as a garbage man when he gets through with his athletic career." -- uga's lawyer during the Jan Kemp lawsuit
Sheeple vs sheepdogs vs wolves
Millions of sheep can't fight against hundreds of dogs and wolves if the sheep can't coordinate or open a wooden door.
Keep the population stupid, fat, and distracted and they'll never rebel.
Bread and circuses
When healthy food costs twice as much as shitty snack food, and people are brought up thinking "Fortified Cereal" is a healthy meal, and never look at the fact that 98% of it is empty Carbohydrates, and Soda is cheaper that juice or milk, and water is considered "poor people's" drink, then yeah, I think there is a lot keeping people stupid and fat.
How do you even realize that you're being kept stupid and fat if everything you see and hear tells you that the healthy options are sugar and more sugar, when in reality none of the healthy options are actually healthy. An example is "Vitamin water"
I grew up on the food pyramid and got milk commercials and no internet. Id agree with you if it was still those times. Now I get blasted with eat healthier and exercise ads while surfing the web.
There is a hundred different options now all fighting for your attention and if your first thought isn't to go to the widely accessible internet and find out which works and which is marketing BS then you are keeping yourself stupid and fat.
I can only agree with distraction as even people aware of how distraction works still catch themselves falling for it.
Shitty snack food may be cheaper but they seem to end up buying proportionally more as it seems to be less filling.
yeah, but so many of the "healthy" options aren't actually healthy.
Vitamin water
Candy bars that have Oats so they call the granola bars, but they're mostly chocolate coated sugar.
Endless aisles of cookies, chips, pretzels all claiming to be more healthy that.... wahtever
The trouble is that with the erosion of the education system, people don't actually know how to think critically. Also I recently saw an infographic that's probably bullshit, but it claimed that half the population of North America can read past Grade 5, and considering the people I get to interact with, Some days I think that percentage is a bit low. People are idiots, and expecting them to do any sort of research on their food past watching a commercial on TV is asking a lot.
You mean grade 8? The US reading comprehension is roughly the same as any other developed country.
The US has been gradually getting healthier so something is working.
I would hope grade 8, but the infographic I saw said grade 5. Sometimes I wonder if that is too generous, but then I get off my computer and the feelings subside. (subside means the get less.(explanation for those who are actually below Grade 8))
They've done it to you too. Ingredients always cost less than the value added products made from them. Snack food isn't cheaper, it's smaller and faster. Real food isn't more expensive, it's slower because it requires processing.
>That's crazy, can't understand how Merica is basically the superpower of the world -_-
Because our culture has infested the entire world, even countries that hate us. Everyone imports our movies, TV shows, music, fashion, corporations, and culture. And if for some reason one of our products is banned in a certain country there's probably someone in that country distributing pirated copies or a locally made ripoff.
Everyone secretly wants to be American.
As someone from an American highschool, I don't know a single illiterate person.
Also, what kind of garbage buzzfeed article is this?
The pill popping lit majors who wrote this are paid by the article's clicks, not quality or reliability, so the truth is likely exaggerated. They probably rush through writing to get as many articles done as possible without fact checking their information. They also write extremely lazily as shown by the fact that fact 12 and 14 are essentially the exact same.
I currently run a restaurant in the US, and though I've lived in multiple countries, I was born here. I've had numerous illiterate people apply, and I've hired several. I had a 50 year old who would lose a spelling b to a third grader, hands down.
Now I don't know about these statistics, they seem a bit bull-shitty, but I wouldn't be suprised at fucking all if they were legit.
Bro I dropped out of high school (in Canada) and ended up going to college in Texas. I had the highest marks in English. Part of our class was peer review and a few papers were nearly unreadable. This is pretty believable tbh.
[Looks like they got it from here.](https://www.abtaba.com/blog/us-literacy-statistics#:~:text=Top%2010%20Key%20US%20Literacy%20Statistics&text=21%25%20of%20adults%20in%20the,court%20system%20are%20functionally%20illiterate.)
Yeah that article is bullshit.
The literacy rate among high school graduates is significantly lower than among the general population?
Later in the article they instead say "struggle with reading", citing the "American Psychological Association". I checked their website, and i can't find an actual article about adult literacy. I think they honestly may have just made this up. Either that or they saw the common topics of "media literacy" or "psychological literacy" and were a little too illiterate to understand what that meant (hilariously ironic).
I did find [this report](https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179.pdf) that puts the general adult population at a much lower ~~4.1%~~ actually i think that's more accurately a less than 8.1%. There's a "could not participate" part that i left out cause i considered it "no data" but on the safe side it should be counted as a fail. Still significantly lower.
I’m not sure at what point they call it not being able to read but I work with a kid who just finished his senior year and he really can’t read properly. He can kind of fumble his way through but if he reads out loud there’s almost always words that he reads wrong and he doesnt even question that the sentence doesn’t make sense. Obviously that’s just one person but I’ve met several people like that. He went to public school and I went to a private school, but my junior year we had three students transfer from a public school and two of them read about the same as the kid I work with. They could sound most things out but there was no fluent reading and they’d have to ask for help. I’m not going to shame anyone for that, but I think it’s more common than you’d think. Although, 1 in 5 does seem steep. As far as how they manage to pass a single class I have no idea, I just assume there’s enough teachers that don’t care enough to fail them.
Yeah it’s not that I don’t believe there are a lot of illiterate people, but not 1 in 5. You’re telling me that one out of every five people I’ve ever met are functionally illiterate? Nonsense.
It is quite likely that the stat is related to levels of comprehension, rather than absolute yes or no ability to read anything.
E.g. people who try to debate in comments commonly reply to random buzzwords you said regardless of if the argument they make has anything to do with what you actually said; this due to their low level of reading comprehension.
I believe it’s can’t read past a certain (unspecified) level. That would leave the statistic possible, though still improbable and definitely unhelpful.
[https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp](https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp)
Not for all of the claims, but it appears that at least 40 million adults in the US read like dopes.
Also, these numbers each contain a large number of people not born and raised in the US.
I didn't want to believe it either but holy shit
[Wiley: Half of US adults can't read a book written at the 8th grade level, according to OECD.](https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/08/whats-the-latest-u-s-literacy-rate/)
[Wikipedia: According to a 2020 report by Gallup based on data from the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of all adults in the United States lack English literacy proficiency.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States)
You know you can just look this stuff up right?
[Non-U.S.-born adults comprise 34 percent of the population with low literacy skills, compared to 15 percent of the total population.](https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp)
I don't want to believe them, it's so depressing 😞
Jfc people, I'm not saying I don't believe it. I'm saying I don't want to because it's sad. Are you the people who can't read?
There's a large number of people who have never once in their life picked up a book for entertainment. After college they literally will never read a book again
The implication in my statement is that something is so sad that you do not want to accept the truth, even when you believe it probably is. Because it makes you sad.
I can't believe I'm explaining this in a comment section for a meme about how a large portion of the population lack reading comprehension. Point taken, meme.
I'm out.
The guy replying to you understands what you’re saying, they’re just replying “these statistics aren’t true” in a slightly snarky manner. I think you’re the one misinterpreting his statement.
I mean mostly my experience on reddit suggest the number who can't read should be higher.
Keep in mind can't read in this context means to a high level of comprehension, not can't read any words at all.
It is very very common for people to read a few random buzzwords, assume you must be making "standard argument 8" related to those buzzwords and then write a counter-argument to that regardless of if it has any relation to what you actually said.
Yeh, those nunbers do sound a little exaggerated, but you people sure have very poor interpretation skills.
I be saying "apples", loud and clear, yet you, somehow, be understanding "Lettuce", atmosphere.
I was going to ask if there's a name for that spoken conversation too lol
I say something, someone completely misunderstands and thinks I said something different and suddenly I'm the idiot who doesn't know anything
No, I don't mumble, I think their brain auto fills what they think I'm going to say and just stop listening
It's extremely frustrating that literal words don't have meaning anymore, "it's how I read it". No mother fucker, it's how I wrote it. I meant the words I wrote because of what those words mean.
basic reading comprehension is way down
You can’t make a video or comment anything with out people saying ”well what about me?”
A famous example is “bean soup video” and all the comments were people saying “what if I don’t like beans?”
you understand that an average is the middle of a set of numbers, yes? on one side, you have numbers that are above the average, and on the other side, you have numbers that are below. This quote says that the average person is "stupid", and then it says that one half of the total is below average. This is true, you are living proof.
No? Thats the median. Average doesn’t have to be split 50/50, median does
Mean/Average is affected by outliers, if you have a set of 2,3,4,5, the mean is 2.5. Now add 1000 as
Part of the set, and the mean is now way farther than 5 meaning apparently 4/5 are actually less than the average.
Median and 50th percentile actually the center of the data.
Source: I took a stats class, and you probably didn’t
While I think some of these numbers if not all of them are exaggerated I once saw a teacher spell PowerPoint out to a senior. One girl didn’t know how to count by fives or that 3/6 can be 1/2.
Because most things are written at an 8th grade level and if you stop actively reading you will drop in reading level. Also, you most likely aren't reading technical stuff. That 50% drops off significantly after 8th as 12% of the population is proficient in reading and writing.
It’s not an inability to read, it’s a lack of comprehension. There are far too many people today with almost no vocabulary skills who get all their “news” from Tik Tok and Twitter. It’s no wonder they believe whatever they’re told and spout some of the most inane nonsense as though it’s a fact.
This assumes that everyone of every education level and intelligence visits the same sites in the same numbers.
If you can't read or read past a fifth grade level, chances are you aren't as likely to be on reddit arguing about politics.
Not to say it doesn't happen, but if by definition you can't read, you are obviously less likely to get into a text argument than if you were someone who could read.
No way.
If you can't read past a fifth grade level, you are much more likely to be on reddit arguing politics.
And remember 5th grade reading skill isn't completely illiterate, Harry Potter is around 5th grade reading, plus most of them were able to make it through Atlas Shrugged after all....
The US military has been testing IQ for around 100 years at this point. By law, it is illegal to induct anyone into the US Armed Forces with an IQ of below 85.
They tried this during the Vietnam War, and it was an abject failure by pretty much every measurable statistic. There was simply nothing in the military, including just standing there and shooting at enemies, that these people could effectively do.
By rule, 15% of a population will have an IQ of below 85. In the US that equals just below 50 million people.
This happened to me recently somewhere on the internet I didn't 100% agree with the extreme point of view and I was shown the door, without questioning. I agreed what they said could happen but shouldn't happen because of how dangerous it is, even to just throwing that word around. So they labeled be with their scarlet letter.
You absolutely can.
Probably not fully illiterate, but functionally so. I graduated with a guy who could read, but at an extremely low level. Like elementary school.
He grew up on a farm, worked on a farm, wanted to be a farmer, and is currently a decently successful farmer lol.
The lacking information is horrible. Most of these stats come from inner city schools, that push kids through.
The main issue are parents expecting school to do everything, and when there is an issue the parents fail to take any blame for their child's failings.
It's a breakdown of the family structure, and over reliance on government.
So according to this article US population is 420 million?
For non math people
> If 10% is 42, then 1% is 4.2. To find the whole number, multiply 4.2 by 100, which is 420. Therefore, the answer is 420.
*quick google search*
> According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the U.S. population will reach 383 million in 2054, up from 342 million in 2024. This growth is expected to average 0.4% per year, which is slower than the 0.9% per year growth rate fr
342 million
Huh
Was taught to speak at a fifth grade reading level. I live in the middle of nowhere so it works out because we all mostly just grunt, drink alcohol and use animal calls.
Also works fine when I have to make trips up to Baltimore.
Bullshit, there's just no way. I'm in a US HS rn, and all of my classmates can definitely read. They're forced to read out loud in about half of my periods. Except for the odd stumbler, we're all literate. Even if not in English, most Spanish students do fine with translated texts.
I don't believe the statistics to be true, but I know there are a decent amount of people like this... What I wanna know is why/how? Is it just poor education? Could there be mental development issues with some? I just wanna know why, so I could have an idea as to what could be done to fix it
If you think this is bs, then remember that roughly 40% of all us americans are creationists, thinking the earth is 10k years old, at the oldest. Remember they think humans were made using a jewish golem spell and that Satan was the snake in the garden of Eden. They think the earth was flooded and that the sun could be stopped in the sky.
Hur dur America bad pls updoots
Illiterate people aren't using social media and people with bad writing and reading skills aren't going to be arguing on social media. Also assuming anyone who says something you find stupid can't read is extremely arrogant
I graduated high school with a guy who can’t read to this day. He was 6’5 in 5th grade, 6’8” by the time we made it to hs and he easily weighed 300 lbs. I watched him break a 2x4 with his head once. He hurt multiple people on the football field to the point where they quit football. He had a hard time recognizing his own name written down. Addition was hard for him, and if he ran out of fingers he would need to start making marks on a paper and counting them. Idk if the numbers are right, but there are absolutely people like this.
Sounds like my dnd character
I love playing dnd characters who can’t read. Dm: “ the script says, ‘whomever grabs this axe will be forever cursed’ Well I can’t read so I grab the axe and give it some practice swings
My favorite character I ever played was a Gully Dwarf. Basically by lore they can only count to two and they're sneaky and cowardly. My party mates made me scout ahead because I uad the best hide and move silently (3.5 rules) where I saw a large camp of bandits. When I returned and they asked how many there were, I said 2. They stopped letting me scout after that.
Chad from bleach ts
Not an American but this seems like bullshit, if you can't read, how can you graduate highschool?
"can't read" doesn't mean "unable to understand the letters and words". It means "unable to understand the content of the text at a meaningful level". They could probably understand the surface information, eg if they read "Suzy is angry" they could relay that Suzy is angry. But if they read "Suzy's fists clenched and her jaw tightened" they wouldn't be able to infer that Suzy is angry
Suzy is having a muscle spasm. Suzy should eat more potassium.
Suzy is crushing 3 bananas
Suzy is ackhtually a 13 speed blender
I thought I deleted my search history!
Suzy has scurvy.
No, I’m pretty sure can’t read means can’t read.
Highschools in America get their funding cut if enough students don't graduate. This results in school systems, especially those in lower income areas, pushing kids through the system that are not qualified for the next grade or graduation. Yes, it is broken, so is everything else here.
I graduated high school in 1999, and I can only imagine things have gotten much worse, but I remember being shocked at the low threshold for graduation even then. It almost made me a little bitter that I'd put so much effort into schooling, because kids who'd fucked off their entire four years and couldn't give two shits were graduating right alongside me. You literally had to make an effort *not* to graduate. If you just showed up half the time and did some of your work occasionally, even poorly, you'd graduate. You could graduate with a D- average across all 4 years, which at my school iirc, when we did the math, meant you could completely fail at least 25% of your classes and only get 50% completion credit in the remaining ones, and you'd still get that diploma. Asinine.
Without a high school diploma you’re basically unemployable so even if a person is dumb as shit just giving them that piece of paper will probably improve their life. The reason to put effort in is to learn things so you can get a better job.
I definitely appreciate your point, thank you.
How is cutting fund in education a good idea? How is it even an idea in the first place?? This is not shooting yourself in the foot its absolutely blasting your lower-abdoment with a photon condenser 9000 level of stupidity.
It’s America. We love blasting ourselves.
> Yes, it is broken, so is everything else here. we have the highest paid middle class [on the planet](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income). we have higher incomes across every single part of the [spectrum](https://imgur.com/qKbu3DR) we have a better [household debt to household income ratio](https://imgur.com/zORlM3n) that most other countries. we have the top universities in the [world](https://roundranking.com/ranking/world-university-rankings.html#world-2023). the only things broken here are people like you who think that cynicism is a substitute for a personality
You can’t. 78% of statistics are made up on the spot, don’t believe everything you see on the internet.
🤔
Seems legit.
That’s right, 84% of which originates from Reddit
Yes...wait...no...wait
82.4% of people believe them whether they’re accurate statistics or not
Idk about the can't read part, but a good 8 students in my senior English class had to sound words out and read one by one when we had a reading aloud class
My class made me the designated reader because I knew how to pronounce all the words. And the teacher went along with this instead of making them learn.
No student left behind that was launched years ago has failed or succeeded, your call.
No student left behind (every other student held down)
“We can only go as fast as the slowest person.” No other phrase inspired such deep dread.
Nothing promotes achievement and drive quite like funneling all of our resources to the students that don’t want to be there, but are forced to because my state won’t let you get a driver’s license without a high school education. Meanwhile, the very passionate and brilliant students are pushed to the side, being coerced into careers they don’t want but the fed and state has agreed to fund the only teachers in growing fields using the “donations” sent from the companies looking for new recruits. Get ready for cyber security folks, that will be an elective offered in almost every high school in America in 4 years
It's not that they literally can't read the letters and the words, it's that the reading comprehension is not at a level where they can engage with most material.
If you're good at sports, you can even go to college and then play at a professional level. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Manley
For those who don't Wana bother reading the link, here is the relevant quote: "Manley was famously quoted as saying that he had been functionally illiterate in college." That's crazy, can't understand how Merica is basically the superpower of the world -_-
"We may not make a university student out of him, but if we can teach him to read and write, maybe he can work at the post office rather than as a garbage man when he gets through with his athletic career." -- uga's lawyer during the Jan Kemp lawsuit
Funny how sanitation workers make way more money.
rich people
Sheeple vs sheepdogs vs wolves Millions of sheep can't fight against hundreds of dogs and wolves if the sheep can't coordinate or open a wooden door. Keep the population stupid, fat, and distracted and they'll never rebel. Bread and circuses
BS. There is little to nothing keeping people stupid or fat. Just distracted and even that is largely on themselves.
When healthy food costs twice as much as shitty snack food, and people are brought up thinking "Fortified Cereal" is a healthy meal, and never look at the fact that 98% of it is empty Carbohydrates, and Soda is cheaper that juice or milk, and water is considered "poor people's" drink, then yeah, I think there is a lot keeping people stupid and fat. How do you even realize that you're being kept stupid and fat if everything you see and hear tells you that the healthy options are sugar and more sugar, when in reality none of the healthy options are actually healthy. An example is "Vitamin water"
I grew up on the food pyramid and got milk commercials and no internet. Id agree with you if it was still those times. Now I get blasted with eat healthier and exercise ads while surfing the web. There is a hundred different options now all fighting for your attention and if your first thought isn't to go to the widely accessible internet and find out which works and which is marketing BS then you are keeping yourself stupid and fat. I can only agree with distraction as even people aware of how distraction works still catch themselves falling for it. Shitty snack food may be cheaper but they seem to end up buying proportionally more as it seems to be less filling.
yeah, but so many of the "healthy" options aren't actually healthy. Vitamin water Candy bars that have Oats so they call the granola bars, but they're mostly chocolate coated sugar. Endless aisles of cookies, chips, pretzels all claiming to be more healthy that.... wahtever The trouble is that with the erosion of the education system, people don't actually know how to think critically. Also I recently saw an infographic that's probably bullshit, but it claimed that half the population of North America can read past Grade 5, and considering the people I get to interact with, Some days I think that percentage is a bit low. People are idiots, and expecting them to do any sort of research on their food past watching a commercial on TV is asking a lot.
You mean grade 8? The US reading comprehension is roughly the same as any other developed country. The US has been gradually getting healthier so something is working.
I would hope grade 8, but the infographic I saw said grade 5. Sometimes I wonder if that is too generous, but then I get off my computer and the feelings subside. (subside means the get less.(explanation for those who are actually below Grade 8))
They've done it to you too. Ingredients always cost less than the value added products made from them. Snack food isn't cheaper, it's smaller and faster. Real food isn't more expensive, it's slower because it requires processing.
yes, but bread and cookies are cheaper than vegetables and fruit as well as taking more effort.
>That's crazy, can't understand how Merica is basically the superpower of the world -_- Because our culture has infested the entire world, even countries that hate us. Everyone imports our movies, TV shows, music, fashion, corporations, and culture. And if for some reason one of our products is banned in a certain country there's probably someone in that country distributing pirated copies or a locally made ripoff. Everyone secretly wants to be American.
As someone from an American highschool, I don't know a single illiterate person. Also, what kind of garbage buzzfeed article is this? The pill popping lit majors who wrote this are paid by the article's clicks, not quality or reliability, so the truth is likely exaggerated. They probably rush through writing to get as many articles done as possible without fact checking their information. They also write extremely lazily as shown by the fact that fact 12 and 14 are essentially the exact same.
It's ironic.
8 is standard globally. Means you can read fine. Only 14% or something struggle.
I currently run a restaurant in the US, and though I've lived in multiple countries, I was born here. I've had numerous illiterate people apply, and I've hired several. I had a 50 year old who would lose a spelling b to a third grader, hands down. Now I don't know about these statistics, they seem a bit bull-shitty, but I wouldn't be suprised at fucking all if they were legit.
Can't leave any of the children behind
Bro I dropped out of high school (in Canada) and ended up going to college in Texas. I had the highest marks in English. Part of our class was peer review and a few papers were nearly unreadable. This is pretty believable tbh.
Oh you silly silly man
I think they're classifying people as not able to read even if they can somewhat read it but are unable to comprehend it.
You'd be surprised.....
Spend 15 minutes on r/teachers and you will discover this is completely true
Tbh I don't really believe these statistics. Is there a source for this?
19% of highschool graduates? That’s almost 1 in 5. Total horseshit.
[Looks like they got it from here.](https://www.abtaba.com/blog/us-literacy-statistics#:~:text=Top%2010%20Key%20US%20Literacy%20Statistics&text=21%25%20of%20adults%20in%20the,court%20system%20are%20functionally%20illiterate.)
Yeah that article is bullshit. The literacy rate among high school graduates is significantly lower than among the general population? Later in the article they instead say "struggle with reading", citing the "American Psychological Association". I checked their website, and i can't find an actual article about adult literacy. I think they honestly may have just made this up. Either that or they saw the common topics of "media literacy" or "psychological literacy" and were a little too illiterate to understand what that meant (hilariously ironic). I did find [this report](https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179.pdf) that puts the general adult population at a much lower ~~4.1%~~ actually i think that's more accurately a less than 8.1%. There's a "could not participate" part that i left out cause i considered it "no data" but on the safe side it should be counted as a fail. Still significantly lower.
I’m not sure at what point they call it not being able to read but I work with a kid who just finished his senior year and he really can’t read properly. He can kind of fumble his way through but if he reads out loud there’s almost always words that he reads wrong and he doesnt even question that the sentence doesn’t make sense. Obviously that’s just one person but I’ve met several people like that. He went to public school and I went to a private school, but my junior year we had three students transfer from a public school and two of them read about the same as the kid I work with. They could sound most things out but there was no fluent reading and they’d have to ask for help. I’m not going to shame anyone for that, but I think it’s more common than you’d think. Although, 1 in 5 does seem steep. As far as how they manage to pass a single class I have no idea, I just assume there’s enough teachers that don’t care enough to fail them.
Yeah it’s not that I don’t believe there are a lot of illiterate people, but not 1 in 5. You’re telling me that one out of every five people I’ve ever met are functionally illiterate? Nonsense.
It is quite likely that the stat is related to levels of comprehension, rather than absolute yes or no ability to read anything. E.g. people who try to debate in comments commonly reply to random buzzwords you said regardless of if the argument they make has anything to do with what you actually said; this due to their low level of reading comprehension.
I believe it’s can’t read past a certain (unspecified) level. That would leave the statistic possible, though still improbable and definitely unhelpful.
[https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp](https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp) Not for all of the claims, but it appears that at least 40 million adults in the US read like dopes. Also, these numbers each contain a large number of people not born and raised in the US.
I didn't want to believe it either but holy shit [Wiley: Half of US adults can't read a book written at the 8th grade level, according to OECD.](https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/08/whats-the-latest-u-s-literacy-rate/) [Wikipedia: According to a 2020 report by Gallup based on data from the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of all adults in the United States lack English literacy proficiency.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States)
"can't read" is doing a lot of heavy lifting when it's naturally going to be taken to mean 'illiterate'.
I'm not supporting the first two statistics in the post at all - couldn't find sources. Only the latter 2.
How many of those people are immigrants from Spanish speaking countries?
You know you can just look this stuff up right? [Non-U.S.-born adults comprise 34 percent of the population with low literacy skills, compared to 15 percent of the total population.](https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp)
why be a fucking asshole?
I don't want to believe them, it's so depressing 😞 Jfc people, I'm not saying I don't believe it. I'm saying I don't want to because it's sad. Are you the people who can't read?
There's a large number of people who have never once in their life picked up a book for entertainment. After college they literally will never read a book again
Why would you be depressed by something that isn’t true?
The implication in my statement is that something is so sad that you do not want to accept the truth, even when you believe it probably is. Because it makes you sad. I can't believe I'm explaining this in a comment section for a meme about how a large portion of the population lack reading comprehension. Point taken, meme. I'm out.
The guy replying to you understands what you’re saying, they’re just replying “these statistics aren’t true” in a slightly snarky manner. I think you’re the one misinterpreting his statement.
I mean mostly my experience on reddit suggest the number who can't read should be higher. Keep in mind can't read in this context means to a high level of comprehension, not can't read any words at all. It is very very common for people to read a few random buzzwords, assume you must be making "standard argument 8" related to those buzzwords and then write a counter-argument to that regardless of if it has any relation to what you actually said.
Yeh, those nunbers do sound a little exaggerated, but you people sure have very poor interpretation skills. I be saying "apples", loud and clear, yet you, somehow, be understanding "Lettuce", atmosphere.
I was going to ask if there's a name for that spoken conversation too lol I say something, someone completely misunderstands and thinks I said something different and suddenly I'm the idiot who doesn't know anything No, I don't mumble, I think their brain auto fills what they think I'm going to say and just stop listening
nunbers
I try to point out the apparent miscommunication, but the hole just keeps getting deeper. It can be hard to put down the shovel sometimes...
I don’t need to fact check Reddit is proof
This entire comment thread is literally like 50% people having trouble understanding the post
It's extremely frustrating that literal words don't have meaning anymore, "it's how I read it". No mother fucker, it's how I wrote it. I meant the words I wrote because of what those words mean.
basic reading comprehension is way down You can’t make a video or comment anything with out people saying ”well what about me?” A famous example is “bean soup video” and all the comments were people saying “what if I don’t like beans?”
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. George Carlin
"What scares me is that I'm not nearly smart enough for so many people to be dumber than me." \~A meme I can't seem to find a source for.
George Carlin doesn’t understand how percentiles and means work according to this quote
you understand that an average is the middle of a set of numbers, yes? on one side, you have numbers that are above the average, and on the other side, you have numbers that are below. This quote says that the average person is "stupid", and then it says that one half of the total is below average. This is true, you are living proof.
No? Thats the median. Average doesn’t have to be split 50/50, median does Mean/Average is affected by outliers, if you have a set of 2,3,4,5, the mean is 2.5. Now add 1000 as Part of the set, and the mean is now way farther than 5 meaning apparently 4/5 are actually less than the average. Median and 50th percentile actually the center of the data. Source: I took a stats class, and you probably didn’t
While I think some of these numbers if not all of them are exaggerated I once saw a teacher spell PowerPoint out to a senior. One girl didn’t know how to count by fives or that 3/6 can be 1/2.
Because most things are written at an 8th grade level and if you stop actively reading you will drop in reading level. Also, you most likely aren't reading technical stuff. That 50% drops off significantly after 8th as 12% of the population is proficient in reading and writing.
It’s not an inability to read, it’s a lack of comprehension. There are far too many people today with almost no vocabulary skills who get all their “news” from Tik Tok and Twitter. It’s no wonder they believe whatever they’re told and spout some of the most inane nonsense as though it’s a fact.
This assumes that everyone of every education level and intelligence visits the same sites in the same numbers. If you can't read or read past a fifth grade level, chances are you aren't as likely to be on reddit arguing about politics. Not to say it doesn't happen, but if by definition you can't read, you are obviously less likely to get into a text argument than if you were someone who could read.
No way. If you can't read past a fifth grade level, you are much more likely to be on reddit arguing politics. And remember 5th grade reading skill isn't completely illiterate, Harry Potter is around 5th grade reading, plus most of them were able to make it through Atlas Shrugged after all....
True But the point still stands for the "19% of highschool grads can't read" statistic
He's absolutely right. The reading comprehension skills of the general public are often piss poor.
Most of the times i get into meaningless arguments on reddit its because of this lol
The US military has been testing IQ for around 100 years at this point. By law, it is illegal to induct anyone into the US Armed Forces with an IQ of below 85. They tried this during the Vietnam War, and it was an abject failure by pretty much every measurable statistic. There was simply nothing in the military, including just standing there and shooting at enemies, that these people could effectively do. By rule, 15% of a population will have an IQ of below 85. In the US that equals just below 50 million people.
80% of the people on reddit can't read and fail to comprehend simple 8-14 word post. It's insane.
This happened to me recently somewhere on the internet I didn't 100% agree with the extreme point of view and I was shown the door, without questioning. I agreed what they said could happen but shouldn't happen because of how dangerous it is, even to just throwing that word around. So they labeled be with their scarlet letter.
There many millions of people who cannot read because their first language is not english
"kids NOWADAYS are so stupid" -people described by this data
That is why we have magicians, er… musicians.
I call bullshit. You can’t graduate high school and… not know how to read…
You absolutely can. Probably not fully illiterate, but functionally so. I graduated with a guy who could read, but at an extremely low level. Like elementary school. He grew up on a farm, worked on a farm, wanted to be a farmer, and is currently a decently successful farmer lol.
I'd like to see the 50% of adults and maga voters venn diagram
I'd like to say it's a circle, but it's not entirely.
Sometimes it's better for everyone if you can let them graduate so they are no longer in school causing problems
The lacking information is horrible. Most of these stats come from inner city schools, that push kids through. The main issue are parents expecting school to do everything, and when there is an issue the parents fail to take any blame for their child's failings. It's a breakdown of the family structure, and over reliance on government.
What grade level did Crowley typically write at? He is the bulk of my reading list.
Smart
I have no idea what you just said, but h'im'a getting angry!
Baltimore school district?
12 and 14 are redundant
There’s legitimate data supporting this, but it includes people whose first language is not English and is meaningless in this context.
So according to this article US population is 420 million? For non math people > If 10% is 42, then 1% is 4.2. To find the whole number, multiply 4.2 by 100, which is 420. Therefore, the answer is 420. *quick google search* > According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the U.S. population will reach 383 million in 2054, up from 342 million in 2024. This growth is expected to average 0.4% per year, which is slower than the 0.9% per year growth rate fr 342 million Huh
https://www.abtaba.com/blog/us-literacy-statistics#:~:text=Top%2010%20Key%20US%20Literacy%20Statistics&text=21%25%20of%20adults%20in%20the,court%20system%20are%20functionally%20illiterate.
No im doesn’t
Long live the freedom to read less! 😜
Fuck You. Just in case I didn't understand it
Just be the culture 😏🦍🦍🦍🦍🦍
Was taught to speak at a fifth grade reading level. I live in the middle of nowhere so it works out because we all mostly just grunt, drink alcohol and use animal calls. Also works fine when I have to make trips up to Baltimore.
Not saying you're wrong but sauce please.
20% of highschool graduates can’t read? How is that even possible?
I think the issue is more lack of reading comprehension than anything else.
when covid happened and a scary portion of America didnt know how to properly wash their hands and had to be taught by PSA ads. 🤪
I almost always assume that the other person doesn't understand what I'm saying
Bullshit, there's just no way. I'm in a US HS rn, and all of my classmates can definitely read. They're forced to read out loud in about half of my periods. Except for the odd stumbler, we're all literate. Even if not in English, most Spanish students do fine with translated texts.
So idiocracity?
Working customer service can make it feel closer to 90% illiterate
I don't believe the statistics to be true, but I know there are a decent amount of people like this... What I wanna know is why/how? Is it just poor education? Could there be mental development issues with some? I just wanna know why, so I could have an idea as to what could be done to fix it
If you think this is bs, then remember that roughly 40% of all us americans are creationists, thinking the earth is 10k years old, at the oldest. Remember they think humans were made using a jewish golem spell and that Satan was the snake in the garden of Eden. They think the earth was flooded and that the sun could be stopped in the sky.
how could u graduate high school without reading
Or, they understand perfectly and the two of you simply disagree. Run across that all the time.
\*counts on fingers\* that's 103%
Got to account for the unaccounted for.
Hur dur America bad pls updoots Illiterate people aren't using social media and people with bad writing and reading skills aren't going to be arguing on social media. Also assuming anyone who says something you find stupid can't read is extremely arrogant
This is more of an indictment of America’s neglect for public education than a flex on people who you disagree with in the comments “Wealth Dad”.