Half of Detroiters illiterate?

[Henry Whalley]

I don't pay to read behind the News' paywall because I won't subsidize comatose persistent vegetative state [PVS] hacks like Nolan Finley. But will someone who has access, please paraphrase this opinion piece Dumas: Half of Detroiters illiterate? We need action [[detroitnews.com)

[Richard]

Not me ,I am too cheap to pay the $1 for 6 months,not for nothing but you keep calling him a hack but you are curious as to what his opinion is,but not curious enough to pay the $1.

I can mail you the dollar,but after figuring in the cost of the stamp,envelope,energy to walk 10 steps to the mail box and raise the little red flag thingy it would put me at a buck fifty,which is borderline bankruptcy.

[Jimaz]

I couldn't resist a paraphrase: "There are none so illiterate as those who will not read."

Henry, check your private messages.

[bragaboutme]

Is it really necessary to be literate in this day and age? should be a better title. You literally can spell words just by starting with two letters and if your phone goes out people lose their mind. Reading is needed and necessary, but being literate? I don't know.

[KnnNike]

Maybe it was 05% and the person who typed the article is also dyslexic!

[Henry Whalley]

I couldn't resist a paraphrase: "There are none so illiterate as those who will not read."

Got it, thanks. As usual, the parents and community have not failed their children. Somebody's gotta' do something. How about a 5K Run/Walk for Literacy Awareness?

[jcole]

This Dumas woman is "the co-voice on the "No BS Newshour" with LeDuff, if that matters.

[mjb3]

47% of Detroit adults are functionally illiterate, was the stat I saw around 2000. It may have inched up a bit, but not totally unbelievable number. That's why people complaining about the DPS seems foolish, as if they can overcome half the parents not being able to read want-ad, job application, etc...

[Henry Whalley]

This Dumas woman is "the co-voice on the "No BS Newshour" with LeDuff, if that matters.

Knowing that makes me wanna' pray for LeDuff. Better yet, organize a 5K Run/Walk for him.

[Henry Whalley]

That's why people complaining about the DPS seems foolish, as if they can overcome half the parents not being able to read want-ad, job application, etc...

With regard to the permanent underclass, I always agreed with the policy of benign neglect attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan. IMHO sociology isn't a science, and a social problem is a situation that has no solution.

When Karen Dumas isn't busy on a fun run or lunching at the Beverly Hills Grill, she should teach a disadvantaged child or two.

[MikeM]

47% of Detroit adults are functionally illiterate, was the stat I saw around 2000. It may have inched up a bit, but not totally unbelievable number. That's why people complaining about the DPS seems foolish, as if they can overcome half the parents not being able to read want-ad, job application, etc...

And her article quotes this statistic:

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of U.S. adults 16-74 years old — about 130 million people — lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

So Detroit is rather average.

[Henry Whalley]

So Detroit is rather average.

Good point. And the U.S. is average for a third world country.

[softailrider]

I can say that as someone who has worked in the city with its residents for the last 43 years, I do not believe that statistic at all. Almost all the residents I have met throughout those decades seem quite literate.

[stasu1213]

What exactly is Illiteracy? Is a person illiterate if that person doesn't speak well but could read a newspaper? I think that a person is literate if that person could read a newspaper or at least at a 12th grade level and can put a signature on the line. I think that many people in Detroit may be lazy in doing research on people who run for office. That's why people who last names such as Conyers, Young, Sheffield, Burton, etc keep getting voted back into office.

[Henry Whalley]

What exactly is Illiteracy?

UNESCO Definition

Illiteracy, as well as functional illiteracy, were defined on the 20th session of UNESCO in 1978 as follows:

A person is illiterate who cannot with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life.

A person is functionally illiterate who cannot engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community’s development.

[Richard]

Whoopi Goldberg could not read until her early 20s
Britney Spears cannot read or write without help
Gengis Kahn was illiterate

Those who were illiterate until later in life

Abraham Lincoln,Christopher Columbus,George Eastman [[Kodak),Vidal Sassoon,David Geffen,Kemmons Wilson [[holiday inn),Henry J Kaiser,and many others.

People that were uneducated that changed the course of history

The Wright Brothers,Jane Goodall,David Bowie,Michael Faraday,Srinivas Ramanujan [[famous mathematician that was deemed on the IQ level of Isaac Newton),Steve Irwin,John Rockefeller [[quit school at 16),John Glenn,
Gregor Mendel [[discovered genetics,nobody believed him because he had no formal education),Mary Anning [[ discovered dinosaurs) Benjamin Franklin [[quit school in the 10th grade),Jimmy Hendrix,Quentin Taraintino,Mark Twain,Sir Richard Branson [[quit school at 16),Anton Van Leeuwenhoek [[ made his own microscope and discovered microbiology),Fredrick Douglas [[taught himself how to read and write then taught slaves how to read and write),Henry Ford [[never had a formal school education),Ed Rickets [[discovered the eco system),William Shakespeare,Winston Churchill,Albert Einstein [[ high school drop out).

Harper Lee,Charles Dickens,Mark Twain,George Bernard Shaw,H.G. Wells,Jack London,John Grisham,JK Rowling.

Were all famous writers with no formal writing education.

It goes on and on and on,The only limitations in life are those you allow others to place on you.

Some of those I posted you may have heard of before,they definitely dispel the theory of those that are illiterate or poorly educated are a drain on society.

Some of the most intelligent and highly educated individuals became some of the most widely known serial killers.

Stay tune next week when we share that list.

Detroit became Detroit because there was an ample supply of illiterate workers,you did not educate the workers,you removed their ability to become and participate in a productive society.

Weather or not one is illiterate is irrelevant,Detroit already proved that as it became a international city,people did not let the city down,the city let the people down because it removed their place in life from them.

And it sent that place to another country where the workers are equally illiterate,but now are more prosperous then the ones they replaced.

If the false narrative,is illiteracy is the downfall of society,then why does society have to pay for the student loans of college graduates that cannot earn a living while being highly educated,they are literate but they are in the same situation as one who is illiterate,just further in debt.

I quit school in the 10th grade,I make more per hour then my lawyer that graduated from the top law school in the country,the difference is he can charge me $5000 per year just for the ability to have him on speed dial.

So it is perfectly exceptable for an educated person to charge somebody for the privilege of having their services available 24/7 but not exceptable for a uneducated person such as myself to charge for the same privilege because I do not have that piece of paper that demands it.

It’s not the illiterate people that is the problem,it is the literate people that create the problem so they can feel like they have hold a better position in life over others simply because they have a piece of paper on the wall that tells them that.

Detroit functioned and excelled when it was full of illiterates,you took away their ability to put food on the table despite that,and now they are a burden because everybody needs to be literate in order to survive.

Seems to me Detroit and other cities prospered until they decided everybody needed to be smart in order to fit into life,the world needs ditch diggers,because the one that designed the ditch says they have a piece of paper that says they do not have to.

[Dan Wesson]

On web based news sites I will read the article rather than watch the video.

The ability to read and comprehend is the number one requirement in my line of work.

[jcole]

Spend some time on FB and Twitter and you will see that most people are functionally illiterate

[Richard]

What is the end gain with literacy without economics?

Religious groups have been going into remote villages for decades teaching the children to read and write,they can now read and write but it does not change the way of life with opportunity.

No different then Indian reservations in the United States,you can spend millions teaching the children how to read and write but they are still generations into poverty because the opportunity to use those skills does not exist.

I think the whole reason behind everybody needing to be able to read and write and be somewhat proficient in math,is so when you get the bill at the end of the month you can read it and write the check to pay it.

Henry Ford said,I do not need to be smart,I can hire people that are smart.

[Lowell]

Reading and writing may become as obsolete as cursive handwriting, another thing no longer taught. I'd wager the vast majority here are illiterate in, say, German or certainly Chinese. But does that stop any of us, or any supposed illiterate Detroiter, from communicating in those languages?

No. We just pull out our smart phones, open the Google Translate app, put it in conversational mode, and we can discuss metaphysics.

In a sense we are returning to a pre-Phonetic-alphabet oral culture. These technologies will only get better. Oh, and did I fail to mention that I dictated this post which was written and spell and grammar checked for me?

[Canadian Visitor]

When it comes to literacy/illiteracy rates, its important to understand that there are different rates.

There is a measure of the most basic level of illiteracy, below which someone would be considered functionally 'illiterate'.

That doesn't mean literally can't read at all, but rather cannot read at a level generally required for day to day life.

Then there's a much higher standard of 'proficiency', and gradients in between.

Functional illiteracy in the U.S. is around 21% vs 17% in Canada, not a huge gap.

Proficiency [[think of this as the standard of English one might be expected to have to do well in University) is the one being cited above at 54% of Americans lacking proficiency. This compares with 48% in Canada.

Both nations would be considered to have a 99% literacy rate overall [[rudimentary reading skills)

PISA which is the most common assessment system for measuring High School student achievement across different countries, the last measure I can see was taken in 2018. Canada was at #6 in literacy, vs the US at #13, out of 77 countries measured.

https://factsmaps.com/pisa-2018-worl...ience-reading/

When one looks at the results, on a national level, the U.S. literacy rate is unexceptional, certainly room for improvement, but 'third world' is not at all accurate.

The Literacy rates were better for both Canada and the U.S. than were the math or science rates, the former of which I would consider worrisome for the U.S.

Canada was a mediocre #12; but the U.S. came in at #37

*****

In respect of improving educational achievement in low achieving communities, there are no secrets, it takes time, money and effort, adding tutoring, lowering class sizes, providing enrichment and mentoring, but also supporting parents learning as well. Getting Mom/Dad to get their GED, or otherwise get help w/basic literacy makes a huge difference, as does the promise of a better life. College/University needs to seem to be a legitimate dream; hard word needs to seem to pay off, because few will put in effort to make no difference.

[Henry Whalley]

No. We just pull out our smart phones, open the Google Translate app, put it in conversational mode, and we can discuss metaphysics.

Nonsense. The reason you're able to do so is because you're literate.

[Satiricalivory]

UNESCO Definition

Illiteracy, as well as functional illiteracy, were defined on the 20th session of UNESCO in 1978 as follows:

A person is illiterate who cannot with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life.

A person is functionally illiterate who cannot engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community’s development.

Still not really getting what functionally illiterate means. Is there an example you can give? Like a paragraph that somebody functionally illiterate wouldn't be able to read?

[Rocket]

I remember the news reporting before Detroit's bankruptcy that only 21% of people leaving grade school ended up graduating high school, and of those, something like 65% were literate.

If we wrongfully presumed none of the drop-outs were literate, then the literacy rate would be in the low teens.

But of course some drop-outs are literate, and not everyone that lives here went to school here, and the schools were better many years before, so older people should have a much higher rate.

But on balance, I suspect we have about a 45-50% literacy rate in the city.

[K-slice]

The importance of literacy isn't about functioning in day to day life, at least not anymore. It's about showing society you are at least intelligent and driven enough to make yourself a literate member of society.

The same could be said about algebra, chemistry, trigonometry, etc. You done learn [[and most likely subsequently forget) these things because you'll need them in every day life, rather you learn them to achieve some accolade that shows you're intelligent enough TO learn them.

Jobs won't put "English literacy" as a prerequisite, but high school diploma or bachelors degree may be, and you need to be literate to get one of those.

So yes, being what society calls literate is still very important to climb into the middle or upper classes of society in most cases.