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https://medium.com/collapsenews/new-study-54-of-american-adults-read-below-6th-grade-levels-70031328fda9
Nov 25, 2023 1:08 AM
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https://medium.com/collapsenews/new-study-54-of-american-adults-read-below-6th-grade-levels-70031328fda9
KILLERCHROMATIC
And isn’t that really what the rich wanted all along…?
Mikataki
What do you think 'Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader' was based on?
Dagordae
Did you seriously post your own paywalled opinion piece? Fuck you dude.
ejw909
I used to love Idiocracy until I realized it’s just making fun of uneducated people for being uneducated. Rather than pointing fingers saying “hey stupid stop being so dumb” you should really ask, “who the f-ck was in charge and how did they let it get this bad?”
NoRose
I was formally reprimanded for using "big words" as a senior manager in Learning & Development...not by the learners who were PhD and PharmDs...but by my colleagues who couldn't understand my contributions to team meetings. They made jokes about needing a "translator" for terms common in our professional field....like "Likert Scale".
NoRose
Sauces to help the overall conversation:
Summarizing some newer datasets from validates sources, trending toward scientific studies: you'll find work from 2013-2023.
https://www.thinkimpact.com/literacy-statistics/
Work summarizing old data: https://map.barbarabush.org/
fr0stbyte124
So that we're clear, most of what you read on average is going to be 6th grade level or below. That's just the degree of difficulty of conversational English, and it's lowered over time because the language itself has streamlined over time.
kendrickmeadows1
The same people who don't trust experts and said "When am I ever going to need math or science" and slept through their classes...
Volpe42
Can you trust this oped written by OP with no sources listed anywhere, at least what can be seen outside the pay wall.
aristera
We don't need a verified source to share stories of stupid people we have all dealt with.
ifounditunderthere
Da3n
The KJV Bible is 12th grade reading level. The vast majority of Christians cannot comprehend the Bible.s
masteryoplait
it’s ok scro
ThatGuyFromJustSouthOfTheMiddleOfNowhere
At least President Camacho had the ability to change his policy based on new info. Complete work of fiction.
beAbetterperson7
No problem, we'll just say 4th grade is college level. Then everyones doing fine now. Just lower the bar and solve all problems. /s
Yellowchopsticks
Start accruing that tuition debt early.
HelpfulCorn
It's just like vanity sizing in clothing. 73% of the county is overweight or obese and now I wear a 0 instead of a 6 like I did 20 years ago at the same size
BestUsernameICouldThinkOf
Dropping grad standards, getting rid of standardized testing, make it impossible for kids to fail classes...
Murmull
"You've already done that and the kids still don't pass the grade"
SerialChickenLover
And pizza is a vegetable, because it has tomatoes.
FTUG
BenjyX55
Which 6th graders are we talking about here?
fadingtheory
Listen, just because I only read 40K and Battletech novels doesn't mean I can't read at a higher level. I just don't want to.
Murmull
Battletech, interesting... Didn't know they had proper lore.
fadingtheory
There's a huge amount of Battletech lore. If not, what would 40K have nabbed?
ZeroLyfe
Damn, how many years do you have to be in school to get to grade 40K?
JHStrong
I was called out in a staff meeting because I used the word "summon" when referring to a contract worker we used. Management told me that not everybody there went to college and I should think more when choosing my words.
I quit that job.
NoRose
Feel you!
aristera
"Why don't you fucking think more so you understand the words I use?"
JustaSimplePlumber
They’d be really upset too, if they could read this.
woozle
Chimpanzeezeetop
TLDR
Starhaven350
SnakesInBowties
lolololol perfect
RummageSaleBubbler
Wow.
Volpe42
The oped was written op, with no sources given for the information.
RickyIWannaGoFastBobby
CoinedWatcher
It said that 54 Americans haven't read since 6th grade
Sufferwell
Smacked it
Klaxun
Explain it to me like I was five
legnouaa
Roger A. Freeman (Reagan education counsellor) said, “We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat", maybe there is some link.
anotherrandomname
I know that the average American is as dumb as shit, but.... How do they define a 6th grade level if 54% of adults are below it?
1potsie
It did not say dumb! It just said 54 % of Americans read below a 6th grade level!
ilhares
That's right. They could be brilliant idiots. ;)
nojustsayitdont
America used to have scholastic standards they taught to.
PoopholeAintALoophole
Better source please.
clumsiii
https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy#:~:text=by%20EMILY%20SCHMIDT%20%7C%20March%2016%2C%202022&text=This%20means%20more%20than%20half,of%20a%20sixth%2Dgrade%20level.
unluckyandbored
I work retail. This figure is optimistic.
eadanke
But if they provided a better source, they wouldn't be linking to their own blog post anymore.
Fargus57
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/
zHurk777
To be fair senator tommy tuberville R-ALA coached football at Auburn Univ and said the 3 branches of the federal government are "the House, the Senate, and the Executive" and stated that WW2 was fought to free France from communism. And yes tuberville did say these things and yes the to-be-fair was sarcasm. You can't make this sh!t up.
talomox14
We could only be so lucky to elect someone like commacho. Instead millions will vote for a hateful dipshit like Trump who doesn't want to help anyone.
Voojagig
I read below a 6th grade level. I read above it too but I also read below it.
lovingspace
Prove it.
nojustsayitdont
One might say 100% of Americans read below 6th grade, 46% read above 6th rade.
Nanntuckett
That implies nobody reads exactly on a 6th grade level.
mygodhasabiggerdick
Aaaurelius
54% of American Adults don't understand this joke.
evawin
https://youtu.be/bcYppAs6ZdI?si=Xi-lU2m7-gKBuSGI
ErniesWidow
The high school where I teach does not have an AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program. However, I teach my Health Science students AVID strategies because of these literacy concerns, and AVID incorporates WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading). Literacy is important for college, career and life.
becomingErica
And they vote republican.
Shpielers
I would seriously love to see data on that. I have no doubt it's not that far from the truth.
azimir
I haven't found anything on people with 6th grade or lower reading levels yet, but when it comes to people with college degrees, especially postgrad, they strongly lean Democratic: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/06/02/democratic-edge-in-party-identification-narrows-slightly/
absinthemindedprofessor
And they listen to Kid Rock.
SindarElla
That's why they are trying to screw over the education system. We need to keep voting to keep them out at all levels!
ForceAwakenWasLame
Murica … I can’t hear you over the sound of my freedom
Akurei00
"Whateryou tryna read that word for? You a fag?"
OliverOtter
This is a huge issue in scientific research. In the US it's a requirement to write an informed consent form that's comprehensible at the 6th grade level. It's almost impossible to describe most clinical trials at a 6th grade level without leaving out a lot of important information. And even if you do somehow manage, there are a lot of people who still won't understand it.
Volpe42
So a couple things, you posted what amounts to an opinion piece written by yourself as if it was a news source with no sources that can be found outside the pay to the site that you write for.
Redbulloth
Love that someone downvoted you there, it's a pretty significant fact for the post.
[deleted]
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Ikwilstroopwaffels
It can be forgiven* in spoken dialogue*
AlkeneThiol
"So you just repost popular stuff to get meaningless internet points? Sounds boring af." - wonksbonks. /gallery/RWixqPJ/comment/1888406115
AlkeneThiol
Probably a wasted 90 seconds I spent on this, but given the insufferability, I had to.
NotSomoneElse68
This isn't essay writing. This is casual comments among passing users on a social media site.
Volpe42
I prefer calling imgur an antisocial media site
16bitStarbuck
So, fuck off.
garbuhj
So, you obviously don't know there's a difference between formal and informal writing
Helpfullifetips
Oh Damn, googling for literally two seconds finds dozens of sources including https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adultiteracy">https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy https://www.snopes">-litera">iteracy">https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/09/09/literacy-levels-in-the-us/70799429007/
mksu
Given how often people flip out on me for using "big words," this does not surprise me.
woozle
Btch128
Seriously, I said I was doing some "recon" on someone, and my roommate had no idea what reconnaissance was. She wants to play Scrabble every week and then gets upset when I beat her. The only time she won I was more than several shots of tequila in, and it was still a close game.
uplookdont
Well use a smaller font
StellaMatutina
I have the opposite, I have people laugh at me for using made up words
TsubakiTragic
Oh, that's just three twoderful five words.
CarpeMofo
I once got accused of trying to sound smart for referring to someone in 10th grade as a 'Sophomore'.
daementia
Saw a home first date use “reciprocity” and she said that was a “$15 dollars word.
Teawrecks66
Bro anytime I share a meme with my coworkers they read it slow out loud to themselves and then I just hand them my phone for a bit.
Foxsayy
My vocabulary is much smaller than it used to be because people didn't understand me and/or thought I was arrogant, so I pared it. (Sorry, I meant I made it smaller.)
funkystay
Why speak lot word when few word do trick?
Foxsayy
For the sake of cromulence, my dear Watson.
lordofthegoats
D: why did ya'll haz to usify big fancified words like "given" n' Surprise"
doctorId
CoinedWatcher
Syllable? You mean those things nerds use to sound smart!!??!?!?!
TripleDane
I once had to explain to an American the difference between accuracy and precision.
Emjayen
'3.26831287' is a precise but inaccurate definition of PI, while '3.14' is accurate yet imprecise.
Meltemi
"Accuracy is when you closely you can hit the center of the target with your AR-15. Precision is how tightly you can group your shots."
thundercactus
Wow. That's a surprising one.
km3000
I'm sometimes torn between bringing out the big words, versus speaking more plainly to be more easily comprehended.
ThatKidWhoYoyos
Depends on if I'm selling or buying.
Bsher
Me neither, though I do know my fair share of folks who throw 20 dollar words into 2 dollar sentences
Foxsayy
Perhaps the 2-dollar word wasn't like, cromulent.
fivehelicopter
Sometimes I just can't remember the two dollar word.
aristera
Well that is very photosynthesis of them.
lostinamapfactory
Inconceivable
JefftheIntern
You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.
BenderRodriguz1010
TZO2k15
A nation is as smart as its mainstream population… So the US is as smart as a box of crayons…
TsubakiTragic
possibly, but that may be an over estimate. We can go with for now till the next report comes out.
PithyCommentBelow
I doubt this comes as a shock to most of the Americans here.
TZO2k15
Indeed, myself included! I was BORN here, so I had no choice of being an American, though most of my life was spent happily ignorant of just how truly this nation was fucked by design, so NOW that I'm disabled and a senior citizen, it looks as though I am stuck here… If ONLY the North didn't allow for CONFEDERATES, (traitors of the nation) to serve in our fuckin' god-cursed government, this nation would have been better for it, as the neo-confederates AKA gQp, will always hold us back!
[deleted]
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SerialChickenLover
Found the guy who can’t hold a conversation above a fifth grade reading level.
Chawzilla
You make a perfectly cromulent point.
PutItInNeutral
If I dumb down how I talk to someone, it feels like I am condescending to them.
notacobra
What defines effective? If all I want to do is convey information as fast as possible, maybe. But when the goal is expression of thoughts and ideas then treat writing as an artwork and consider a greater vocabulary as you would a painter with more paints and brushes with which to use.
masteryoplait
Fair enough but I often find that precision is gained with big words. Not all conversations can be “like this or like that”
vigilantej
can you give a real world example? not saying your inherently wrong I just thing simple vocabulary is usually best to avoid confusion. Again asking for real world example not an academic one so when at work or with the average lay person would you need to use "big words" thought I would prefer the term obscure words or words not often used instead of "big"
mksu
"Verisimilitude" is a word that is quite common in online D&D communities, but is fairly obscure elsewhere. This is likely in part due to Matt Colville's influence and usage of it, but also because it better captures what most people feel the goal of worldbuilding should be than a word like "realism" when dealing with an inherently unrealistic genre. If you use "realism," it can actually lead astray inexperienced DMs and they end up stressing over minutiae the players won't think twice about.
mksu
That's really what it comes down to. There are a slew of words in the English language that aren't fully synonymous with more familiar choices and using them allows you greater control over what you express. Likewise, there are words that can do the work of an entire phrase and are therefore less cumbersome to use (eg "penultimate" vs "second to last").
mksu
It's not like I'm using obscure literary terms from the 1800s.
vigilantej
I dont disagree with you in spirit but I also agree using simple language is usually best because if I use my better vocabulary I end up having to explain the meaning of most words and then my point gets lost in the English lesson I now have to give.
mksu
I don't partition my vocabulary into categories like "normal" and "better." Aside from technical terms I've only ever encountered in academic contexts or literary terms I've only ever encountered in older works, they're all just words I know. I will avoid technical terms if I don't feel it's conducive to the point, but I feel like it's an exercise in futility to try to anticipate which words are in someone else's vocabulary generally. People who whine about "big words" rarely listen anyway.
MrStealYourGiF
On the singular occasion I come across one I have to comptrol myself not to just insinuate it into idle assemblages of prose.
vigilantej
I too like using gargantuan idioms to fabricate intelligence
datphone777365
Hmm yes quite....
WilliamWeird
Written like someone who's never experienced the joy of using the word "effluvia". Speak in poetry, not ingredients.
vigilantej
Not going to lie I had to look that one up XD
BenderRodriguz1010
Chimpanzeezeetop
Me in gif. Me no like
funone77
Chawzilla
vigilantej
why is this getting down voted? Simple language is best in most cases especially dealing with mix English level audiences
WilliamWeird
The problem is people getting upset, not becoming confused. Confusion invites discussion, anger closes dialogue.
Wolvenlight
I still remember the time a guy on imgur flipped out on me for a chain of comments I wrote in reply to a completely different person because what I was explaining to him was too many words. I don't remember most people who scream at and block me, but that one was too weird to forget.
aristera
Common reply in an augment though. "I'm not reading all of that." Well fuck dude. You don't understand short from and you won't read it spelled out for you, you're a lost cause at this point.
Wolvenlight
Yep, though the best part is it wasn't even the guy I was explaining things to that got mad at me about my lack of brevity. It was a guy that guy was arguing with elsewhere that popped in to get mad at me even though we likely agreed with each other.
funkystay
"But not me - I'm smarter than that, I worked it out...
I've been stretching my mouth
To let those big words come right out"
Tarmaccian
I got called out in a work meeting for saying “pedantic”. I was the lowest-level person there, as a senior engineer. Oi vey.
SerialChickenLover
I’m not the only one? I was floored the first time someone got angry with me because I was using words they didn’t understand. It was bizarre how much they internalized their own ignorance.
Oogibah
To me it depends on how you use it, are you using it because it's the right word in the context or are you using it to try to sound more intelligent?
SerialChickenLover
I speak to express myself, not impress others. I am kinda awkward and more of a reader than a conversationalist, so that’s probably why I let a few of those SAT words fly now and then.
YouAreMyFavoriteMoose
I'm probably using a big word because my mind totally blanked on the small word that would have been more appropriate and the big one is all I can remember
SerialChickenLover
This happens to me a lot, actually.
psychologisttheologist
I mean, people who don't know the word in question are often going to assume the latter even when it is really the former
myproudburner
How scrumtrulescent!
Foxsayy
Well that's a word I know now.
ilhares
The amount of downvotes that happen when correcting people's ignorance is staggering some days.
LaronX
Like all things it depends on how it's done and on the context. If you point out and explain a mistake, I will thank you. If you attempt to use it as an "argument" against me or to invalidate my claim. You will get a fuck you if I feel nice.
notinterestednow
I find being right is important but being seen as right no longer matters to me. Be wrong it’s ok. I don’t care about you enough to correct you.
ilhares
It's not about me being right. It's about them being right *next time*.
bigassdolphin
Are you using one word statements like "You're*" or are you inviting an exchange? Often it's how you correct someone rather than having corrected them.
Foxsayy
Tbh I assume some things are just autocorrect or a revision that didn't get matched or a typo they missed. Autocorrect happens to me all the time, unfortunately.
bigassdolphin
Nah, I used often instead of oftentimes in genuine error. It seems like the guy was just being cheeky.
datphone777365
Sometimes its is ignorance other times its responding to pedantry/pettiness.
DickTipPapercut
I still correct peoples' grammar and still get shit on for it pretty often.
wags18613000
It's because they don't know the difference between ignorance and stupidity.
WeAllLiveInAUserSubmarine
They're pronounced differently
vigilantej
how dare you use two synonyms on me!
Meltemi
How dare you call me a cinnamon.
wags18613000
Great now I wanna cinnabon
ImCommanderShepardandthisismyfavoritepostonthefrontpage
Mmm... I love synonym rolls.
vigilantej
for some reason the old applejack commercial popped into my head +1 for the nostalgia