by Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, Hamilton
“Less than half of Americans are proficient readers” (The Economist, 31 July 21, p. 18).
Ouch!
“Low Literacy Levels Among U.S. Adults Could Be Costing The Economy $2.2 Trillion A Year” (Forbes, 9 Sept. 2020).
Ouch again!
No wonder so many people are hung up on CRT — Critical Race Theory, which, outside of law school, is simply a murky expression the Republican Party is pushing to scare people away from recognizing that true, factual, documented US history is as troubled as the history of any other country. For example that enslaved people were mostly forbidden to learn to read and write English because their enslavers knew that education is power.
No wonder so many people are hung up on “freedom,” whether it be not to wear a mask or to carry a gun or to home-school their children. People who can’t read proficiently are most likely not to have the tools to think critically or objectively, so they latch on to whatever strokes their ego. If you can’t read well, you can’t be in control, and everyone wants to feel as if they’re in control.
If the above is true, we are failing ourselves, our children, and our country as a whole. If the above is true, American “exceptionalism” is NOT a good or responsible thing and we are NOT the greatest nation in the world. (To be fair, the US is not the only “advanced” country with literacy problems, but still … ouch!)