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submitted 1 year ago by LambLeeg@lemm.ee to c/memes@lemmy.ml
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[-] jaschen@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

This can't be true..... 21% of Americans can't read?

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Gives some perspective on american culture and problems compared to the rest of the world doesn't it?

Four in five U.S. adults (79 percent) have English literacy skills sufficient to complete tasks that require comparing and contrasting information, paraphrasing, or making low-level inferences—literacy skills at level 2 or above in PIAAC (OECD 2013). In contrast, one in five U.S. adults (21 percent) has difficulty completing these tasks (figure 1). This translates into 43.0 million U.S. adults who possess low literacy skills

Source: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp

[-] SamboT@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm all for american self-depreciation but:

"34% of adults who lack proficiency in literacy were born outside the US."

https://www.thinkimpact.com/literacy-statistics/

I hate to extrapolate data as an idiotic internetter but being born in the US and being illiterate could also be because we have so many immigrants that aren't set up for success right away and aren't as concerned with education as they are with meeting their most basic needs.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigration-by-country

Which illustrates her point well. 2/3 were born inside the US then.

[-] SamboT@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Could first/second generation immigrants born in the US be more likely to be illiterate? Is the American education system simply bad at teaching kids to read? No idea.

I just have a compulsive personal issue with people using data like they are justified to say they know what causes the statistic they quote. I realize social media is more of a way for people to get a little dopamine instead of trying to understand the world but I'm okay getting downvoted to add context lol.

[-] VolatileExhaustPipe@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Were you adding context though? Does it justify the situation if a percentage of people are migrants (who often are fluent in a language above the given literacy btw.)?

For real literacy skills in the US are a huge problem, it is a systemic problem of which the burden is heavily placed on individuals that are marginalized. Neolibs might quote:

It is estimated that these negative social and economic outcomes cost the United States $362.49 billion annually.

I say watch the whole Parenti lecture if you can: https://twitter.com/a_lutacontinua/status/936363027502391298?lang=de parenti

"Yellow" Parenti lecture

Parenti's questions:

  • What happens to the people that can't read in the US?
  • What happens to the children (who don't have food) in the US?
  • What happens to the people without houses in the US?

Edit The fascists mentioned for example were the right wing Nicaraguan death squads, you can find more about them in the Jakarta method

[-] SamboT@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

So first of all, thank you for the civil discussion because that is the biggest lacking quality of scored comment sections like this site. It seems like discussion always brings details that are helpful when we are condemning an entire country with little information provided. This is why I like discussion and not militant downvoting and personal attacks.

I truly have no narrative here but I just searched for immigrant literacy and the first thing I found:

"41 percent of immigrants score at or below the lowest level of English literacy — a level variously described as "below basic" or "functional illiteracy"."

https://cis.org/Immigrant-Literacy-Self-Assessment-vs-Reality

Thank you for the info and sources. I do have time to watch the lecture, and will.

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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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