Half of those who try, can’t
Read a good book lately? Ever? According to a recent study on literacy in Canada, 50% of “us” haven’t. Or at least, not with a reasonable level of comprehension. I read that statistic with great sadness.
I’ve never tried to hide my love of reading (even though it caused me great pain in the closed community of elementary school). Leave a text within my purview and I have an obligation, nay compulsion to see if there is value added in the lines. The flip side of the dime, where people don’t read and don’t understand the little they do is unknown territory.
No sense trying to find a scapegoat. There are interesting textbooks and interested teachers, and far too many hours spent in that group-grope we call organized education. All the way along, students are tested and motivated to push their limits and…
I do admit that the system failed me in dealing with mathematics, but that’s another problem. My experience was that the school curriculum provided too much time for endless math sessions, and yet failed to show me the relevance. Is that what has happened to the 50% who are functionally illiterate. Too much time and insufficient focus?
Maybe we need to rethink curriculum. I’m only joining the chorus with a statement like that. But, if Johnny can’t read, or cipher or do any of the other things that Jethro Bodine had mastered before moving to the Hills (go ahead, look it up), then “Houston, we’ve got a problem”.
I’ll continue to read; wherever, whenever. Maybe someone else will catch my illness.
