New Study: 54% of American Adults Read Below 6th Grade-Levels

Submitted ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨zoe@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨aboringdystopia@lemmy.world⁩

https://i.redd.it/jckii49sczrb1.png

cross-posted from: lemmit.online/post/1006130

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/aboringdystopia by /u/Last_Salad_5080 on 2023-10-03 14:21:04.

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OrteilGenou@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Ironic that there’s a grammatical error in the headline… 6th-grade levels, surely

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- GladiusB@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The tables, they turn
  
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- WoahWoah@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The great journalism of “Homeless Romantic” has really been in decline.
  
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- Surp@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This is all just a simulation.
  
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  - Rognaut@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s what the lizard people want you to think!
    
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  - SuckMyWang@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    If it were a simulation or real what would be the difference?
    
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- PM_ME_FEET_PICS@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The hyphen goes between grade and levels. Confidently incorrect.
  
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  - jaybone@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    How is the feet pics thing working out for you?
    
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  - OrteilGenou@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You hyphenate the teeth acting as an adjective, I e. Two-gun kid, not two gun-kid
    
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  - WoahWoah@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    All that does is make it extremely poorly written because of “sixth” followed by a compound noun instead of the misplaced hyphenation for a compound adjective.
    
    What you basically just said is “it’s not grammatically incorrect that way, it’s even more grammatically incorrect to the point of being nonsensical in this other, more abstruse way.”
    
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IHeartBadCode@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It's really important for folks to understand what is being talked about here, because I run into folks even here that are like "that's a wall of text, I'm not reading that". And that's kind of the behavior that's being talked about. Like, if you find yourself in "read the headline, not the story" you might be in this group they are talking about in this article that is linked. And do not let me come off high and mighty here, I absolutely have issues with this some times because I get all kinds of caught up with life and do not have enough time to maintain my reading habits. It is a complex issue on why there is this deterioration of reading skills. And I will likely say something to the effect of "Internet BAD!" but do know it is more than just that, it is just that is the easiest go-to for a "short" comment.

So that said. Nice little sample question one would see on a test that would test this is:

In Lions of Little Rock, two girls form a dangerous and clandestine friendship, that is challenged by racial segregation. Name, in chronological order, the multiple episodes of racist threats and violence and how they increased the tension of the relationship between the two girls.

It's not a question of "Can you read the book?" It is a question of, "Did you extract information from the book? Can you connect the dots asked in the question based on the information that you read?" Lots of people who identify themselves as literate have a lot of difficulty doing these kinds of things. So we have to understand that, this is not testing if a kid can read the word "onomatopoeia", it is testing if a person can extract useful information from written words.

All of that is different from the "eighth grade reading level" where you are typically asked things like "extrapolate what you think the underlying theme the author is trying to present." Sixth grade reading is mostly being able to put things back in the order that you read them, picking out the descriptive terms that were in the text, and identifying what the entire point was for this particular piece of work, among other things. One does not have to really get creative here, sixth grade reading is just "in slightly finer detail" being able to regurgitate what was just read. Now to get kids ready for higher reading, there is usually questions about "do you think this person at this point was feeling happy?" That kind of stuff that relies of extrapolating meaning which above the "sixth grade level reading".

And it is indeed shocking how many people cannot do this. But in order to be shocked, I think people need to understand what is being tested here. A lot of social media does indeed condition folks to allow this level of reading to atrophy. The number of people who toss around TL;DR is really high and some of that is because it does not interest them. That of course is fine, but some of it is because 50% of the way through their brain is tired of reading text. AND THAT, is problematic. And really I can only touch on so much of the issue in this comment without it feeling like it is going on forever.

There are all kinds of assessment tests online that folks can review and see exactly the kind of questions that are being asked and the whence and wherefores on why this is happening are indeed complex and obviously I cannot cover them all here. But one big one, in my opinion, is education and its intersection with technology. Technology does indeed make lots of things easier for us, but some of those things that technology unburdens us from we should probably reexamine that relationship. Perhaps we need better education with technology or maybe we need less technology with that education, they both have pros and cons to them. There are not easy answers in this for the kind of background American education presents, which that is also an addressable matter in all of this.

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- paddirn@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  that’s a wall of text, I’m not reading that
  
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  - groupofcrows@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    can someone recap it using an emoji?
    
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  - IHeartBadCode@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    LOL
    
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  - agent_flounder@lemmy.one ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Dumb it down for me doc?
    
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- Redhotkurt@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  It's not a question of "Can you read the book?" It is a question of, "Did you extract information from the book? Can you connect the dots asked in the question based on the information that you read?" Lots of people who identify themselves as literate have a lot of difficulty doing these kinds of things.
  
  I'm really sorry if this comes across as a TL;DR, but there's a name for that. I'm positive you already know, but for the benefit of those interested, it's called "functional illiteracy." And it's wild, still blows my mind to this day. Like, if you're functionally illiterate, that doesn't mean you don't know how to read...it means you can read but can't understand language written beyond the basic level. There are a lot of variables involved and I'm oversimplying a lot, but that's it in a nutshell. It's fucking terrifying, to be honest, especially because it's so widespread.
  
  Read to your kids, folks! And talk to them about it afterwards!
  
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  - paddirn@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I feel like I encounter this alot at work. Write an email describing the problem, asking for clarification or a decision, and get a response back that seemingly ignores what is being asked with a question that was already answered in the previous email.
    
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  - Kecessa@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Even more wild that a functional illiterate was elected president of the most powerful country in the world!
    
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  - Default_Defect@midwest.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Read to my kids? Why would I want to turn my kids gay with WOKE READIN BOOKS?!
    
    /s
    
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- SCB@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The amount of people on this very site who cannot parse comments they have an emotional reaction to is staggering.
  
  Lots of people are going to laugh at this and not realize it is describing them.
  
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  - sociablefish@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    Lots of people are going to laugh at this and not realize it is describing them.
    
    Why not both lmao
    
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- dpkonofa@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You’ve indirectly highlighted the biggest issue I have with referring to literacy as “x-grade reading levels”. Literacy skills stack on top of each other and, sometimes, in slightly different orders. Calling them by a grade level makes people associate these skills with certain educational levels in school when, in reality, you only learn these skills from repetition and growth. I wish there were (and maybe there are and I’m just not familiar with them) clearer distinctions for these types of skills that meant more than “x-grade” which is practically meaningless to most people and harmful for those struggling with reading and comprehension.
  
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  - SCB@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    You’ve indirectly highlighted the biggest issue I have with referring to literacy as “x-grade reading levels”.
    
    There are standards of complexity that are set by grade level.
    
    Here’s a resource with a great breakdown
    
    www.weareteachers.com/reading-levels/#:~:text=Lex….
    
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  - IHeartBadCode@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Well that sounds like semantics that you take exception with, on how particular educational groups define things. Your frustration is well founded but misplaced on me. Indeed all things build and in different orders for different people no doubt. However, in the context of educational reporting at the government level, these are the labels that are applied in the various reports. And as all things, those things roll down hill.
    
    clearer distinctions for these types of skills that meant more than “x-grade”
    
    There are, but politics being what they are, those labels are less meaningful labels to folks that arguably have the most power to change the course of things (that last part is strictly my opinion, sorry/not really sorry I injected it here). In short, I concur with your observation.
    
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- mojo@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I read your first paragraph then skipped the rest of whatever you’re going on about. It’s about saving your time in a world where there’s near infinite amount of content to be able to read, it’s a skill to know what’s worth reading. Reading level means more so reading comprehension, which is not that. It’s being able to comprehend text on a deep level and connect it to other ideas and whatnot.
  
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  - Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I agree to some extent, but honestly the time spent on reading lemmy/reddit/Twitter/etc could almost certainly be spent on more important literature. I’m not going to pretend that a few minutes in a sea of wasted hours really makes a difference.
    
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- barsoap@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  wall of text
  
  I’d just like to note for the record that your post wasn’t a wall of text. Not only does it have paragraphs, it is also well-structured in its information delivery and you use connectives well, constantly answering “why am I reading this sentence (or subordinate clause)” in the first couple of words. This is not only easy to do (if you’re used to it), it also takes enormous load off the reader by not having them divine erm “train of thought context”, and actually follows natural speech patterns. But it does require that your thoughts are organised, that you can write the whole thing in one go, or you will have to go back and massage everything down to size. Which brings me to
  
  TL;DR
  
  “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”.
  
  Or, differently put: Writing skills are actually just as if not even more atrocious across the board. Another reason for tl;drs are people who are paid by word count.
  
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- flossdaily@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The other thing that needs to be acknowledged here is that literacy has overwhelming been trending upwards over time. As grim as this is, it’s actually fantastic news when we look at where we used to be.
  
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- Nobody@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  My reading skills tell me this author has a profound sense of sorrow about the state of the world.
  
  This author is now also aware that there is no comfortable place in your mouth to rest your tongue.
  
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  - Peaty@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    This author is reminding you that you are suddenly aware of your breathing.
    
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- Psythik@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hey go easy. Some of us have ADHD.
  
  It’s not that I don’t want to read a wall of text, but simply that I’m incapable of doing so.
  
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- IonAddis@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  but some of it is because 50% of the way through their brain is tired of reading text. AND THAT, is problematic.
  
  Yep.
  
  This reminds me of how often people mistake skill for “natural talent”.
  
  “Natural talent” exists, but someone without any particular natural talent at something who has still spent thousands of hours doing that thing is going to run circles around someone with “natural talent” who never put time and effort into practicing.
  
  And I think when that skill is “reading”, people don’t power through the moments when their brain rebels, gets frustrated, or gets tired. So they hit that block, and don’t push through to overcome it. They go do something else…but they go do something else every single time. So a block that would be frustrating but minor in the big scheme of things gets codified in one’s mental image of themselves.
  
  And once you have this idea that you are or are not something–that conception can turn into a huge mountain to overcome.
  
  (As an aside, our parents have huge influence on if we think we “are” or “are not” something. It’s very worth it when you think you “can’t” do something to go back and look at your life and check if that voice in your head isn’t actually yours, but the voice of a parent who didn’t know what the fuck they were talking about!)
  
  (Both people who were belittled as “stupid” and those who were constantly called “smart” can end up kinda “malfunctioning” later on, thinking they can’t do something. The ones called stupid think they can’t do something because “they’re dumb”, while the one called smart has been conditioned to fear not being 100% perfect, so they don’t even start because minor, genuinely trivial failures loom as large as the destruction of the entire earth in their minds!)
  
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  - Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I definitely feel that, especially when you see people define themselves as “readers” or “not readers”. There’s no way that there isn’t a book out there for every person, but we aren’t always great at connecting kids with what actually motivates them to read and reflect. The Grapes of Wrath is an incredible and ever-relevant book, but there’s no way I could’ve appreciated it as such in high school. I know the same is true for many others because it was notorious for being a drag at my school. It just takes time to develop the critical reading skills and life experience that make you appreciate something like that, and not everyone has that by 6th grade or even graduation. I just don’t know how you go about continuing that education.
    
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- j4k3@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I think you make some valid points. I like to imagine most of us have other interests and projects we are engaged with and my be less motivated in some areas when we engage with other things. This is almost always the cause if my headline hot take behavior or unwillingness to read a text wall. I’m primarily here for the inadequate dopamine hit of social media; not as much for the personal growth potential.
  
  I think the primary issue is an education system that makes reading and learning a nuisance and chore. This is a problem that can be solved in the coming decade with the use of technology, but it will take a serious overhaul of the entire system. There is no room for proprietary software and exploitation in education. The entire system should be standardised on open source software, funding should be allocated to run a small independent and offline AI server and the teacher’s role should be divided between the AI system and a traditional group oriented role. This will allow individualized education without exploitation. An AI agent that is specifically designed for this task and paired with the teacher’s supervision makes it possible for each child to follow the path that best suits them. They can read any book they want that meets certain requirements. They can progress at their own pace. Issues can be identified long before any current teacher is capable of spotting. Most importantly, this is not about AI as a product or replacing the teacher in any way. This is making use of a tool, and doing so ethically. This kind of thing can not be done for profit or by contractors. The privacy of such a system should be of paramount importance that is not possible long term with any company focused on profitability. The only people with access to the AI should be the students, parents, and teachers. Even IT staff at the school should not have access to the AI logs and data, and there should be no persistent storage long term. It has to be a tool that is used by the teacher only.
  
  To be clear, I am a hobbyist working on such a tool for my own self education with the computer science curriculum. This is about AI agents. This is not about a raw AI LLM. An agent is a collection of LLMs connected through a code base, and connected to databases. This does not rely on the model training alone for answers. This is a system where the final answer is checked and reviewed multiple times and verified against accurate sources before a final reply is made. Most people here are likely unfamiliar with this and what it is capable of doing.
  
  This is the inevitable future, it is only a question of how long it takes people to adapt to the new potential. This level of individualized education has only been available to the ultra rich, but it is now possible for everyone at scale.
  
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- penquin@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Bruh, I ain’t reading all that. You crazy?
  
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- agent_flounder@lemmy.one ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m not convinced that social media causes a loss of reading skills. I suppose it is possible but I would want to see some studies on the topic. Anecdotally, I do find myself reading less than I used to. I took a number of English lit classes as electives purely for fun and enjoyed reading a number of fun works that I think would hopefully qualify me as reading above a 6th grade level. But that was many years ago. I haven’t done a lot of reading in the last decade except for news articles about everything going to hell. Of the few books I have read, I read them for pleasure and each was lightweight, not too much analysis and explication required, one rather challenging history book about the lead up to the first world war notwithstanding, though it’s difficulty is due more to more complex sentence structure and arcane vocabulary, and less to its erudite discussion of an already complex topic. Nevertheless, I don’t believe I have had any difficulties demonstrating far beyond mere functional literacy you described despite my infrequent reading of anything longer than a news article or Reddit post. Still, this is anecdotal and I would be interested to see if any scientific evidence exists to connect a loss of reading skills with disuse and to what degree those skills are diminished.
  
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  - jennwiththesea@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I tried looking for any studies on this, and all I can find is info on kids. Nothing in adults, except one study that found cognitive benefits to older adults who used social media.
    
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- Alicecisnt@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I read all of this. I am definitely guilty of looking for a TL;DR. I absolutely believe my overuse of technology has caused my reading and writing skills to deteriorate significantly and my memory as well. I struggle with remembering and analyzing. I have never been a good book learner though. I suspect I have a learning disability that wasn’t quite bad enough for intervention when I was in school aside from special reading training in grade two or three.
  
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  - tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    I am definitely guilty of looking for a TL;DR
    
    In the context of social media, this isn’t really the same problem of not wanting to or being able to read longer stuff in general. There are countless screeds from any number of sources that you wouldn’t want to waste your time going through (not saying the above poster is one of them), so getting a general sense of a longer post is an important skill.
    
    Being able to work through edited prose in detail is also important, but remember that it’s very different from what we all encounter online. In the immortal words of someone who probably wasn’t Twain or Pascal, “I did not have time to write a shorter letter.”
    
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- Xero@infosec.pub ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  A long time ago I reasoned that the poorest least educated of us would be functional illiterates for whom a separate glyph based language would be created. A smiley face does not require reading comprehension or analysis, nor does it produce a populace that asks questions.
  
  I don’t think the landholders who run this shit want more than fifty percent literacy from the serfs who will be beholden to their grandchildren. Too many smart serfs would endanger their legacies, and too few would render the industrial collective serviced by their human capital uncompetitive.
  
  The next few decades will be about them figuring out just how many smart motherfuckers they need, and how to keep those firecrackers too frightened to start a revolution.
  
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- WoahWoah@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hard tl;dr from me, dog
  
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bradorsomething@ttrpg.network ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Read to your kids. Use big words around them.

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- Poggervania@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, say things like “Oh how droll, your lexicon and command of the English language is quite lamentable. Perchance your parents taught you little and never thought to embiggen your vernacular?”
  
  Also lmao iPhones don’t recognize that embiggen is an actual dictionary word 😂
  
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  - Blamemeta@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s because it’s from the simpsons.
    
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  - mojo@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I use giga huge word sounds hella
    
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- KnightontheSun@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  My girlfriend accused me of being a pedophile. I said, "Hey, that's a pretty big word for a 10-yr old."
  
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  - Peaty@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Bob Saget was funny
    
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  - TheBat@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    This was funny when Jimmy Carr told it.
    
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ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
As a former child this is nothing new to me. I remember how much I hated when the teacher had people read things out loud in English class. Hell honestly any class. The amount of people who read like every. Word. Had. A. Period. And the people who would read any word longer than 3 syllables like it was hy-phe-na-ted. It was fucking torture.

20 minutes to read one single page.

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- LagrangePoint@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, this was torture in grade school. I figured it would get better in middle school.
  
  Then it was torture in middle school and I thought it would get better in high school.
  
  Then it was STILL torture in high school and I thought it would surely, surely get better in college.
  
  Then I got to college and there were still mofos reading. like. this.
  
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  - maniacal_gaff@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I am an engineer who oversees a team. Most of them can’t write more than a coherent sentence. Code and analyze data, sure, but put together a coherent paragraph? Not really.
    
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- rosymind@leminal.space ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I was shy-ish and didn’t participate much, but I would often volunteer to read aloud. It was easier for everyone that way, since one of the few things I was exceptional at was reading
  
  I also couldn’t stand reading along with someone who couldn’t. It was too painful
  
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- sleepmode@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I got in trouble for correcting other kids that didn’t grasp phonics. In first grade. I was a little asshole but I was just trying to help. Also it was painful as hell.
  
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  - MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Hooked on phonics worked for me.
    
    … I’m actually not cracking a joke. One of the few memories I have from when I was very young (under maybe 6 or so) was going through hooked on phonics material.
    
    In my college years, while not focused on language or communication (I’m an IT technician, specializing in computer networking) I became obsessed with the English language and it’s been a long term study for me. I’m still learning new things all the time despite English being my only fluent language. The nuances of when to use what terms despite each term being roughly equivalent (such as: what is the difference is between “affect” and “effect”), and other such oddities and specifics. College didn’t really tell me anything new about the language I speak, but dealing with everyone’s terrible use of the language, and being misunderstood many times because of poor structure or word selection caused me to want to step up so I can reduce how many follow ups I have to deal with to clarify myself.
    
    I find most people are almost unnecessarily terse, leaving out important context that they think is obvious and assume that everyone who receives their message will make the same observation, when it’s not an obvious thing at all to many; this assumption is extremely common and often it’s not something that even crosses into the minds of those doing it. Such assumptions often lead to misunderstandings and are the basis of more than a few ha ha funny jokes in sitcoms, all of which I find rather cringe.
    
    As a society, we abuse language severely. By extension, otherwise mundane situations can turn hazardous or even lethal if a misunderstanding happens; and many leave a lot of the context, and a fundamental understanding of context, to the assumptions of the reader/listener. It’s really dumb IMO.
    
    If the literal majority of people are reading at a 6th grade level, the society in which we live should be making efforts to improve that. Bluntly, I shouldn’t need to “read between the lines” to understand what you want me to do.
    
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- afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Kids read like that because they know if they make a mistake they will get a lower grade. Better to be slow and correct.
  
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  - ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    This happened all the way through highschool.
    
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- stealth_cookies@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I never had patience for that and would just read ahead and ignore the person speaking.
  
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code@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
As much as I’d love to jump on the “stupid Americans” bandwagon, this seems to be a big problem not only in America. After the reddit exodus and before I had a good setup for lemmy, I used Facebook for a short period. Most of my stuff there is from US, UK and Norway, and the number of people in the comments who can barely put together a coherent sentance is astonishing. Far below 6th grade level by any standard.

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- Smoogs@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  A sentance?
  
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  - code@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I plead autocorrect, and that English is my second language 🤣
    
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FireTower@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Image

It looks like there’s at least some bias as they only counted English literacy.

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- JDubbleu@programming.dev ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This is basically a map of how many Mexican immigrants each state has. I agree the English bias is not great because not speaking English doesn’t make you dumb.
  
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  - darq@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It would be interesting to see the same data, restricted to participants whose first language is English.
    
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  - kraftpudding@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Not being able to read also doesn’t auromatically equate dumb though. It just highlights a systemic failure of the educations system. And arguably a country experiencing a language divide to this degree is a systemic failure of some kind as well.
    
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- MindSkipperBro12@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It’s basically Americas official language, let’s not pretend it isn’t.
  
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  - FireTower@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That doesn’t mean Spanish speakers are illiterate. They just read Spanish.
    
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  - mojo@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    If you go to school in America, you’re obviously going to learn and be taught in English. There’s a lot of immigrants that don’t know any English. I interact with a lot of them, and they’ll even have their 6 year olds translate for them. It actually impresses me, because the little kids act very mature when they have to translate, since I’m sure they are used to having to navigate their family around at a very young age.
    
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Smacks@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Maybe if we actually paid teachers and gave funding to education this wouldn’t be a problem. Education in the US is god awful.

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- jarfil@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You know what Education in the US craves? Electrolytes…
  
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ShooBoo@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
American’s have been going down the dumbass road for a long time. And you rarely meet someone who is well rounded like you meet in Europe. Not to say there aren’t dumbasses in Europe. There are many. But Americans don’t even seem to try. Not anymore.

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Redhotkurt@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?

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UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
And yet “Terms Of Service” are supposed to be fair. When they’re written at a college level.

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Peaty@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
And many adults choose not to read. It is almost as if they are connected

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Mini_Moonpie@startrek.website ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Here’s an article with more details about the study: www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy#:~:text….

Dr. Iris Feinberg, associate director of the Adult Literacy Research Center at Georgia State University, points to under-served communities with “print deserts,” poorly funded schools, and little internet access as being the places where the people with poor reading skills live. She also called it an inter-generational cycle of low literacy, so it’s not just a recent problem with people not wanting to read.

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vivadanang@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Yup. And the map is pretty much what you’d guess, Mississippi is #1. That is, #1 for worst literacy rate in the nation. libraryjournal.com/…/How-Serious-Is-Americas-Lite…

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TwoGems@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Is that 54% the Trump supporters?

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GlendatheGayWitch@lib.lgbt ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I wonder that the standard used for 6th-grade reading level is. I know that the 6th grade reading level at the beginning of the century is higher than the 6th grade reading level now.

I remember being extremely disappointed when I was in 6th grade and they had arbitrarily moved a lot of books up a reading level. There were a few in particular that I was looking forward to reading while in 5th grade that were at a 6th grade level. Then in 6th grade, I grabbed one of those books to check out but was told that I could t read it because it was now considered 7th grade and that I had to choose from the 6th grade level (which was largely the previous year’s 5th grade level).

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DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
pointedly doesn’t look at the numerous Lemmings he’s seen complain that relatively simple statements are grammatically confusing

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snowe@programming.dev ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Explains a lot

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rsuri@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
And then this links to a picture of a headline, because who’s actually gonna read the article.

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fraxix@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This is such a huge percentage that it has to be incorrect, right? Over half of American adults can’t really read? Or am I just vastly underestimating a ‘6th grade level’.

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fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

3 min read

lol

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douglasg14b@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
We are required to write our customer facing self-help articles at no greater than an 8th grade reading level. Or people literally can’t read to the end.

Largely removing and semblance of usefulness to them IMHO.

So this tracks.

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clanginator@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I absolutely believe this.

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ThatsTheSpirit@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My dad is at probably about 6th grade level.

My father is extremely quick, a sharp mind. He is able to articulate, but not very eloquently, can’t spell really, and or he is self conscious of it and defers to others when writing.

To his credit, he doesn’t really need any of that to live a fulfilling life, but, I wonder what would have changed if his education was better or if he got to grow up in a less broken home. How would that change my life? I’m sure I would be doing something much different than I am now. I’m not sure it even matters. I’m thankful that my father is a kind soul who doesn’t really seem meant for this world. He taught me many important lessons in life and I wish there were more people like that.

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Ertebolle@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Me fail English? That's unpossible!

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CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Everyone surprised by this really baffles me. As someone who went to school here I thought it would be closer to 60%. Ever heard of “no child left behind”?

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Bwaz@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Anyone have the stats on what percentage voted Trump or didnt vote at all?

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Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
About the amount that repeatedly votes Republican. Coincidence?

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JokeDeity@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s not a new study though, it’s kind of old.

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TryingToEscapeTarkov@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Is there a country we can jump to? Kinda like when Reddit got lame we all jumped to Lemmy? Where is our Lemmy country?

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OurTragicUniverse@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
What's a good example of a 6th grade reading level?

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