More thoughts on American literacy

I've been thinking a bit more about the plight of literacy in America. The National Adult Literacy Survey tells an appalling tale. Given that the highest literacy level it examines (level 5) is equivalent to the reading skills one needs to read and comprehend an edition of USA Today; given that at most only 21 out of 100 American adults have such skills today; given that such skills are really those required for an average, competent high school student of a mere generation ago; must we not conclude that 79 out of 100 American adults have the reading skills of middle-school students or even grade schoolers? Or, in other words, that 79% of American adults are in effect children in terms of their ability to read about and to comprehend the world? What else can we conclude?

Consider the meaning of this conclusion. The vast majority of adult Americans have no access to essential information concerning government, finance, politics, economics, science, etc. One has to be genuinely literate to read about these topics, but only 21% of Americans could even begin to cope with such written material. Where do the majority of our people get their information? Somebody tells them. Some talking head on TV or some disembodied voice on talk radio tells them about the world--or at least tells them things that seem to be about the world. Or maybe they get their information from favorite actors in sitcoms and nightly dramas or from movies. Passive, uncritical minds open up and get a load of whatever blather comes their way. They have no way to judge or evaluate what they hear; that would require using knowledge acquired by serious reading, which they can't do. They must simply accept whatever they hear, whatever suits their mood or momentary disposition. No wonder American political life is absurd. How long can a democracy survive when the great majority of the people (the demos) do not know and have no way of finding out how it functions?