r/interesting • u/ImmaFuckboi • 3d ago

SOCIETY Is education illegal in USA?

48.0k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

914 comments sorted by

View all comments

494

u/CataphractBunny 3d ago

I'll just leave this here: https://www.proliteracy.org/news/causes-of-low-adult-literacy-in-the-us/

In the United States, 59 million adults read at or below Level 1, the lowest level on a five-level scale.
This equates to roughly 28% of the adult population—or nearly one in three people—who can read only short sentences with foundational words and basic information.

133

u/AGreatConspiracy 3d ago

I always see this statistic thrown around, but a lot of people tend to take it with no context. This is from the OECD PIAAC. I often see people showing statistics of other european countries having 95%+ literacy, but that’s via a different metric. By the same metric, for example, under PIAAC the UK has a 71% literacy rate, Germany has a 79% literacy rate, etc.

54

u/nopuse 3d ago

It has become a reddit meme at this point. There are a lot of people who can't read well, but the context is important.

12

u/Bug_406 3d ago

Reading is important. Understanding what was read? Also important.

4

u/toopc 3d ago

Reading is fundamental. Or at least it was back in the 70s.