Well if our democracy is predicated on the idea that the populace governs itself, then the populous is being governed by people with a sixth grade reading level.
Comment on New Study: 54% of American Adults Read Below 6th Grade-Levels
yokonzo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
To play devils advocate, is this really a huge issue? As a construction worker friend of mine put it quite plainly, Most Americans don’t really need to be able to read anything more comprehensive than street signs to do their jobs, a 6th grade reading level is pretty proficient, maybe a bit slower but it gets the job done
Asifall@lemmy.world 1 year ago
MadBob@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Man, don’t you hope for a richer life than just being able to do things for your work though?
yokonzo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Personally I do but my point is, plenty of people do not, and they’re perfectly happy that way.
MadBob@feddit.nl 1 year ago
I’m struggling to imagine that.
yokonzo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’m sorry? I mean, despite what you think, their absolutely are people out there like that, they exist because they felt they learned enough and stopped learning. Nothing is stopping these full grown adults from going back to school or trying to improve themselves at home, they just. Don’t.
TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 1 year ago
It matters because being a responsible citizen in a democracy requires having good enough critical thinking and reasoning skills so as not to be easily misled or manipulated by bad-faith actors. If you can’t read well, and it’s not due to something like dyslexia, it speaks to your ability to follow complex ideas and fact-patterns and themes which in turn means that you’re more likely to make poor political decisions.
railsdev@programming.dev 1 year ago
That’s great within the context a construction worker’s job.
But what about outside the job? Things like taxes, being able to determine the truthfulness of things you read online, etc?
Is this guy just working 24/7 with no need to read outside of work ever?