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New Study: 54% of American Adults Read Below 6th-Grade Level (medium.com)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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[–] machiabelly@hexbear.net 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Terrifying. I was so stunned when I left college and realized how much I have to limit my vocabulary around most people. It made me feel distant from many of my peers.

This kind of oppression is so insidious and creates so much shame. Ive been following the tik tok of a ~35 year old man learning to read. Its been such a hard journey for him.

We live in a society based around the rule of law. People cant read the fucking laws. What the fuck.

Foucalt was right. If schools were anything other than prisons, the kids would be able to fucking read when they were done.

foucault-madness

[–] inetknght@lemmy.ml 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I was so stunned when I left college and realized how much I have to limit my vocabulary around most people. It made me feel distant from many of my peers.

To be fair, there are a lot of things that you learn in college that are supposed to be specialized for your field of study.

I was told that I was being condescending when I use words that nobody else understands. To put it in the words of one boss: @inetknght, you're smart and you do good work. But, @inetknght, you can't handle stupid. So I have to move you to another team.

It was kind've eye-opening to realize that stupid people don't just exist. They're all around us. Always have been. Being moved to my own team of one just so people wouldn't feel dumb around me definitely made me feel distant too.

[–] machiabelly@hexbear.net 3 points 11 months ago

I've been lucky that many of the people around me were happy to learn. I haven't worked a white collar job yet so my work has been unrelated to the vocabulary. And people aren't insecure or defensive about education because they aren't payed to be educated. It was actually fun to teach the ones that wanted to learn. But I would also see lots of confused looks and so I lowered my vocab.

But I mean less terms like a-priori and more like flabbergasted or circumnavigate, pincer, dilapidated. Just higher reading level words that you might use in a description or as an adjective. nothing too jargony.

[–] pan_troglodytes@programming.dev 13 points 11 months ago

I believe it. i talk to a lot of folks all around the country (because that's what the powers that be pay me to do) - by and large basically no one is reading the documentation. even in my own group at work, it's rtfm. rtfm, do it, it's part of your job.

only going to get worse too

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I was already at a 5th grade level by the time I was 6. When I was little (like 2 on up) I had kids books that had cassette tapes with each one and followed along with the pages and my grandma would also read to me every night I was at her house before bed as I'd follow the words with my finger.

I didn't know how to actually read before starting school, but I was so used to seeing and recognizing so many of those words from all the books I loved that I really think it gave me a huge head start. The last reading test I remember taking was in 4th or 5th grade when I maxed out the test with the reading level of highschool graduate. Thanks, Grandma.

[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 4 points 11 months ago

I knew people in college that read about that badly.

STEM students, sometimes. yea