Did a two year stint in education (9th through 12th grade) ~27k students, working in LMS software (Moodle).
The state of affairs is... desperate. They allow unlimited retries on English assignments. 20% of kids are blatantly using ChatGPT and don't bother learning basic concepts.
Florida as an example has a pretty strict requirement that you must pass 11th grade English to graduate. There about 10% of students in a limbo where they are now in 12th grade about to graduate, and they are forced to take out of school education to try and pass the 11th grade final exam. It's become an entire business model of some smaller education providers.
"English 3" as its called is pretty foundational, arguments, research, speeches, MLA and sourcing material. It's not just Shakespeare, it's critical thinking (oh god I sound like ChatGPT).
Unfortunately the "service class" will swell to an unfathomable size, with people who will lack any and all ability to learn. How are even the blue collar jobs supposed to be staffed if you can't read the HVAC manual.
Yeah, this is one of the non-theoretical slippery slopes everyone should have been worrying about online for the past couple decades. (Also attestation, but that ship is about to sail.)
> Nearly half of all Americans didn’t read a single book in 2025, with the habit falling roughly 40% over the past decade
I don't think this is a great metric of literacy. For one not all books are exactly high quality, and now more than ever there's a plethora of non-book written content available to us.
I used to read a lot of books when I was in school but these days I rarely do, however I probably consume more written word than ever. News, blogs, documentation, various and sundry articles. I read a lot, just not books anymore.
This won't be a problem in the future. They won't have to read, AI will read a document and tell them what the preparer of that specific LLM wants them to think about it.
With good speech to text and text to speech technologies the skills of writing and reading may become unnecessary for the bulk of the population. If the average person needs to create a critical document like a contract or a will, or to understands some important document, then it's likely that they will hire someone with the specialized skill set.
What is unclear is whether specialists in STEM can dispense with reading and writing. The representation of information in STEM subjects includes many non-textual systems, such as drawings, charts, figures, diagrams of various sorts, tables, etc. While not primarily consisting of texts in a language, in many cases there are text components ranging from math symbols to full sentence captions or bullet points.
> Educators often describe reading as a predictor of long-term success, both academically and professionally. A JPMorgan survey of more than 100 billionaires, reading ranked as the top habit elite achievers had in common, including Bill Gates, Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey
This article is not off to a great start when right away it
- mentions Barack Obama in a survey of billionaires (he isn't)
- conflates academic and professional success with becoming a billionaire which is an outlier outcome
- links to a Yahoo News article (reporting the same story as the OP) when claiming to refer to a Fortune Magazine article (not linked; but I found it and the OP sems copypasted from it) as their source for a JP Morgan survey.
Ironically the National Literacy Institute is making me feel illiterate trying to parse their stats.
>On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2024.
>21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024.
>54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level). [1]
the 54% doesn't include the 21% does it? otherwise no-duh 20% are below 5th grade, 21% in fact. Which would make it 54% of the 79% who are literate? I come up with ~43% there plus 21% illiterate would be 64% of all US adults with some literacy deficiency?
Nobody has mentioned the dramatic increase of non-white immigrants and illegal aliens since 1985, the Reagan amnesty act, migration under the last three United States presidents. Learning to read proficiently requires participation of the child's parents to enforce good habits, etc. Do you really think these kids are even speaking english when they get home from school-- hell no, their speaking their native laguage with their parents.
Actual Title:
More US students are arriving at college unprepared to read. Experts say some may want to ‘rethink’ a $100K degree and follow their interests
18 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 36.2 ms ] threadThe state of affairs is... desperate. They allow unlimited retries on English assignments. 20% of kids are blatantly using ChatGPT and don't bother learning basic concepts.
Florida as an example has a pretty strict requirement that you must pass 11th grade English to graduate. There about 10% of students in a limbo where they are now in 12th grade about to graduate, and they are forced to take out of school education to try and pass the 11th grade final exam. It's become an entire business model of some smaller education providers.
"English 3" as its called is pretty foundational, arguments, research, speeches, MLA and sourcing material. It's not just Shakespeare, it's critical thinking (oh god I sound like ChatGPT).
Unfortunately the "service class" will swell to an unfathomable size, with people who will lack any and all ability to learn. How are even the blue collar jobs supposed to be staffed if you can't read the HVAC manual.
I don't think this is a great metric of literacy. For one not all books are exactly high quality, and now more than ever there's a plethora of non-book written content available to us.
I used to read a lot of books when I was in school but these days I rarely do, however I probably consume more written word than ever. News, blogs, documentation, various and sundry articles. I read a lot, just not books anymore.
What is unclear is whether specialists in STEM can dispense with reading and writing. The representation of information in STEM subjects includes many non-textual systems, such as drawings, charts, figures, diagrams of various sorts, tables, etc. While not primarily consisting of texts in a language, in many cases there are text components ranging from math symbols to full sentence captions or bullet points.
This article is not off to a great start when right away it
- mentions Barack Obama in a survey of billionaires (he isn't)
- conflates academic and professional success with becoming a billionaire which is an outlier outcome
- links to a Yahoo News article (reporting the same story as the OP) when claiming to refer to a Fortune Magazine article (not linked; but I found it and the OP sems copypasted from it) as their source for a JP Morgan survey.
>On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2024.
>21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024.
>54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level). [1]
the 54% doesn't include the 21% does it? otherwise no-duh 20% are below 5th grade, 21% in fact. Which would make it 54% of the 79% who are literate? I come up with ~43% there plus 21% illiterate would be 64% of all US adults with some literacy deficiency?
https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-liter...
Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46259233
Most Americans didn't read many books in 2025
https://yougovamerica.substack.com/p/most-americans-didnt-re...
Import the third world, become the third world.