Literacy Rates of High School Graduates

[Szdfan]

Question: Who here has actually taught in schools? Private schools, public, or both? I would love to hear more from those who have.

I only got as far as student teaching, in inner city Flint.

So you may have heard that I’ve taught public school for a week. Guess how many Marxists I’ve created?

And if you tried the kids would say "why are you rattling on about some old political philosophy book written 173 years ago during the time of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens?"

I introduced an Orwell quote last week and none of them had ever heard of Orwell, including the kid obsessed with WWII.

[Ken]

So you may have heard that I’ve taught public school for a week. Guess how many Marxists I’ve created?

And if you tried the kids would say "why are you rattling on about some old political philosophy book written 173 years ago during the time of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens?"

I introduced an Orwell quote last week and none of them had ever heard of Orwell, including the kid obsessed with WWII.

Wow. 1984 was 37 years ago. That was the time of Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, and big hair. Not Winston Smith and Big Brother.

[Szdfan]

And if you tried the kids would say "why are you rattling on about some old political philosophy book written 173 years ago during the time of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens?"

I introduced an Orwell quote last week and none of them had ever heard of Orwell, including the kid obsessed with WWII.

Wow. 1984 was 37 years ago. That was the time of Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, and big hair. Not Winston Smith and Big Brother.

One of the things that we wrestle with is that a lot of the students don't read. I've already had students argue with me that they shouldn't do an assignment because they don't read books. That argument is a non-starter with me.

I've realized that some of the students are trying to convince me that they're stupid. Some of them live in genuinely horrific circumstances and even some of the kids who seem to come from good family situations seem lost. Part of it is their age and stage of development. Part of it is whatever has been going on in society.

I think one thing that critics of public education don't seem to understand is that schools are not hermetically sealed bubbles. What happens out in the community effects us in the schools as well. If kids are neglected and abused, it effects our classrooms. If there's drugs, prostitution and alcohol "out there," it impacts "in here." If parents are unavailable to their kids, we see it in class.

[Ken]

I introduced an Orwell quote last week and none of them had ever heard of Orwell, including the kid obsessed with WWII.

Wow. 1984 was 37 years ago. That was the time of Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, and big hair. Not Winston Smith and Big Brother.

One of the things that we wrestle with is that a lot of the students don't read. I've already had students argue with me that they shouldn't do an assignment because they don't read books. That argument is a non-starter with me.

I've realized that some of the students are trying to convince me that they're stupid. Some of them live in genuinely horrific circumstances and even some of the kids who seem to come from good family situations seem lost. Part of it is their age and stage of development. Part of it is whatever has been going on in society.

I think one thing that critics of public education don't seem to understand is that schools are not hermetically sealed bubbles. What happens out in the community effects us in the schools as well. If kids are neglected and abused, it effects our classrooms. If there's drugs, prostitution and alcohol "out there," it impacts "in here." If parents are unavailable to their kids, we see it in class.

They may not read books, but they read. They are always on their phones. In science I have class sets of textbooks on a cart in my classroom and I post .pdf copies of every chapter on my google classroom web site so that students can pull up the relevant chapter at home or on their chromebooks. But I find that students still often prefer to pull up the textbook .pdfs on their phones which produces tiny tiny text and pictures. It would drive me crazy to read off my phone but they seem to like it. Kids will want to work on assignments on their desks by reading the assignment and questions off their phone rather than getting up, going across the room, and getting an actual textbook.

You can always try putting text online so they can read it on their phones. I would edit all the textbook .pdfs using Adobe Acrobat to trim all the page margins down to nearly nothing so there would be less wasted white space on the small phone screens.

[temporal1]

Eventually the lack of literacy will get to a point that people will become motivated to learn, but sometimes that happens later in life.

Years ago as an impoverished grad student, I was delivering pizzas as a part-time job. On a slow day, I was talking to one of the other drivers and he mentioned that he was taking a class to learn to read. I hadn't noticed, but the manager was covering for him by calling out the address when he picked up an order. The educational system had failed him, but he had developed ways to compensate, and finally decided that he needed to learn.

One of the most important basics that must be taught (or caught) is a desire for life-long learning, whether that involves formal education or self-directed study.

This reminds of a brief talk i had with a Walmart manager about a year ago.
She told me they have to teach new hires basic math so they can do their jobs as cashiers, etc.

i definitely believe in life-long learning. my mother (and father) were models. they read “everything.”

[temporal1]

2026

Amala Ekpunobi / He Asked Classmates To Read A Sentence. The Result Went Viral. / 18+min

A high school student in Philadelphia filmed his classmates attempting to read a sentence on a notecard,
and the result is going viral. Let's talk about it.

Amala’s face is so sad.

She shared she’s now expecting a little girl.
i sent her congratulations and suggested it’s not too early to begin reading to her unborn.

She describes how teachers have been complaining about this problem for years. i’ve seen it, too.
She describes responsibilities of parents to prepare their children for school. i 100% agree.

The love of reading starts early. In my view, before birth is not too early.

[temporal1]

^^More than reading, tho.

While i was viewing, i thought of the early Christians, most could not read.
The Word was most important. Mostly spoken.

i’m thinking, for high schoolers in the above predicament, i would begin with The Word, in much the way it was originally shared.
Truth is the most important thing. From that point, everything else, including reading and love for reading, can follow.

Souls first. prayers.