As a Californian, I was surprised and honestly a little disappointed that California is the state with the lowest literacy rate in the US.
According to the International Assessment of Adult Competencies and the National Center for Education, about 22 percent of American adults (around 73 million people) aren’t proficient in reading.
The average American also has the reading level of a 7th or 8th grader. The 2011 average literacy test score for 8th grade public school students is the same as the adult national average. This level is used as the benchmark for “for written guidelines in the medical industry”. Readability is important to consider so the highest number of people can understand as use the information on documents like tax forms, ballots, and medical forms. However, expecting low literacy affects the amount of information that can be procured from these forms in general.
As obvious as it sounds, reading is the best way to get better at reading.
Sadly there are multiple studies that show a decrease in readers. One by the Census Bureau revealed that literary readership among American adults decreased more than 10% between 1982 and 2002. The National Endowment of the Arts said that “at the current rate of loss, literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century”. Not in our family though!! The nerd will prevail!
Decline is reading and lower levels of literacy is bad because it can cause problems in other areas of learning, “including writing, spelling, fluency, and comprehension.”
I think this decline is mostly because of the rise of screens and the internet in general. People are used to more visual stimulation and shorter attention span requirements related to enjoyability. Electronic media has drawn people from books. “Non readers watch more tv than do readers”.
However, saying “just read” isn’t really effective. There are many challenges people face when they try to read. Struggling with reading also doesn’t mean that someone isn’t smart. Many of these challenges stem from reading in childhood or underlying disorders that cannot be changed.
For example, if pleasure reading discouraged by peers or at home, a child might just find another outlet that receives external validation. Thanks fam for not doing that! Or if the child has dyslexia or ADHD, like moi, reading could be inherently more difficult. The situation gets even more complicated when parents don’t understand why their child is struggling. My parentals thought I hated reading when I was little because I always avoided it and put the books far away from my face. Turns out I needed glasses, among other things.
Honestly I love reading. It’s probably the activity that brings me the most joy. That includes reading from web comics to physical books!
Anyway sorry for not really ending this, but I’ve already written a lot and I’ll finish the thought tomorrow.