Something came across my radar a few weeks back that wormed itself into my brain, metaphorically speaking. That sentence is in no way meant to diminish any individual who has experienced a worm of some sort actually having eaten part of his brain. I just keep coming back to this and asking myself a couple of questions. How can this be, and what does it mean?
Based on the latest data available, the National Literacy Institute has reported that 54% of American adults read at below a 6th grade level. The National Center for Education Statistics has essentially confirmed that same finding. Well, that’s rather concerning on a variety of levels.
According to the U. S. Department of Education, a whopping 91% of American adults have graduated from high school. Some 62% of these folks have attended college, with 45% of the total having achieved an associate’s degree or higher. Yet the department’s data shows the average adult American reads at the 7th or 8th grade level. Let’s get into the weeds on this, shall we?
Logical deductions will be the name of the game. Having a high school diploma does not guarantee one has the reading skills deemed appropriate for a 12-year-old. In fact, there are a number of folks who attended college courses without those higher-level skills. The 45% who got some kind of college degree tracks with those who read at or above a 6th grade level, but that is rather faint praise for a college education.
Of course, none of this can be used to infer anything about an individual. Many of us know someone who is very well-read but never attended college, much less received a degree from one. At the same time, we all know there are those with doctorate degrees that couldn’t pour piss out of a boot.
So what does this mean? If one reads at a 6th grade level, is one thinking at the level of a 12-year-old? Does that average 7th or 8th grade level bump of a couple of years make it all that much better? If the vast majority of adult Americans finished high school, why is the average American reading at a 7th or 8th grade level in the first place?
To complicate the matter as we move this discussion forward, why then do most newspapers aim to write at the 11th grade level? With that portion of the media writing above the comfortable level of the majority of Americans, is it any wonder that more and more folks go to the internet and cable news to get their information? Even folks with higher-level reading skills do this and get shortchanged in the process.
Let’s go to a bit more delicate space with this. The Census Bureau reported that 65% of the voting-age population voted in the 2024 election. If most of the voters are those who read at or above a 6th grade level (the 45% or so), that leaves at least 20% to come from the group who don’t. Since everyone doesn’t vote, that portion expands to become 30% of the overall electorate.
Now we could postulate all day long about how this happened, whose Machiavellian manipulation of America’s education system caused it to happen, and whose Orwellian vision is made more likely by this having happened. We could blame a variety of politicians from both major parties whose incompetence, fecklessness, or complicity allowed this to happen. We could form an unending series of task forces, focus groups, and forums of every nature to come up with plans for action, strategies to turn the situation around, and make (dare I say it?) American education great again.
But in this political climate, why bother? Unless the point is monetizing the problem. And what, pray tell, is more genuinely American than that? If I were younger and hungrier, I might want to explore how to turn this problem into a little old money-making PAC. Not to solve the problem, but to profit from it.
Regardless of reading level, many of us seem to be thinking that things just aren’t as good as they should be and not as good in some ways as they have been. As we move ever closer to the midterm elections, it might be worth noting that how these things turn out isn’t just about candidates, campaigns, and money.
The most important variable is the electorate. And that electorate is variable, to say the least.
