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April 17, 2003
wow
nearly one-quarter of the U.S. population cannot read well enough to handle everyday tasks
Did anyone else realize that this was that big of a problem? The internet I can understand.... but reading?
stu
Posted by Stuart at April 17, 2003 12:22 PM
Comments
I knew literacy was still a problem, but I had no idea it was that bad. Every once in a while somebody tries to do something about it, and you hear about programs here and there to help people learn how to read. I'll bet a big part of that is people who've moved here from other countries. In fact, I've seriously considered volunteering at the Guadalupe School here in Salt Lake.
I first heard about the Guadalupe School in my psychology class at the beginning of this semester. If you don't know much about it, there was a good article in the Chrony about it a few months back:
Empowered Education: The Guadalupe School, Volunteers Help Students Improve Their Lives
Anyway, that article about people transitioning to the Internet seemed pretty obvious to me. There will always be a certain percentage of the population that will never be interested in getting online. I think that goes the same for television. The Internet is great for information sharing, but let's face it, it has really just become one more avenue for advertising and entertainment (sometimes not so clean entertainment) to get pumped into our homes. I think the most interesting thing about the article was where it pointed out the main demographic of those who aren't online yet:
Those who show no interest are more likely to be older, white women living in rural areas.
This statement seems pretty obvious to me. These are the same people who can't program their VCR's. :)
Posted by: Joey at April 17, 2003 06:16 AM