Scary stuff on the phone bill

[annuin]

So I noticed something on our latest Verizon phone bill today when PreZ was checking a few calls with me... written on the back of one of the pages the following:

Verizon Answers the Call For Literacy

For decades, Verizon answered calls with the phrase, "How may I help you?" Now with more than 92 million Americans experiencing low or very low literacy skills, Verizon asked the literacy community that same question. They said, "Will you raise awareness of this issue?" Verizon answered their call by creating Verizon Reads. (cue info about the Verizon Reads literacy platform).

Okay, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that there are roughly 250 million people in the US, and if there are supposedly 92 million Americans that have low or very low literacy skills... that's like a third of the population!! It's almost twice the population of England! And they say there's nothing wrong with the US education system... well, sorry, but if one third of your population qualifies for low or very low literacy skills, that's a pretty huge fucking problem to me.

Comments

[varjosusi.livejournal.com]

consider this: one of my sister's friends moved from New York to Oklahoma at 16...by then, she was FAR ahead of the seniors here...and she had JUST been getting ending her sophmore year of high school up there...

and then Kansas has the Just Because teaching trick (there was a topic on GN about it)...

is there ANY wonder why there are people who can't read? too many areas have CRAP for an education system...I personally think the education system needs FAR more money and FAR more people that actually care in charge...

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

While I know all this, a lot of that is on a slightly different level... this is just about basic fucking literacy! just being able to read, nothing more "complex" like science lessons in school or math or anything.

Obviously if you can barely read then further education is going to be suitably hampered... but just the fact that so many people cannot do the basic and simple act of reading is staggering.

[varjosusi.livejournal.com]

if I remember correctly, someone online told me, at the high school near him, one graduating class had only 3 people that could read past 3rd grade level...these are SENIORS...and can't read worth crap...and I believe that there were at least 30 in the class...

[ddurkee.livejournal.com]

I thought maybe there were 400 million here but I could be wrong... either way that's an astonishing number. Are they counting kids and stuff with that? Maybe with all the pregnancies and shit that could be contributing.

So how was the wedding?

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

So how was the wedding?

You're on my friends list, so you should be able to see the wedding post I posted earlier this afternoon before this one ;)

[darktor.livejournal.com]

I myself, am entirely illiterate. Can't read a damn word of English.