America the Illiterate

PWK, whom I hear goes ‘all the way,’ pulled Chris Hedges’ quote:

A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school.

Troubling; worse than I imagined. Still, cherry-picking that quote, from among many striking lines, misrepresents the essay’s heft. Hedges probes a broader ‘illiteracy,’ of which book-reading is one significant piece. 

He’s on about functioning adulthood, social values and disenfranchisement by narrative/cliche politics; about those who interpret Yes, we can as a permission slip rather than a call to service; about the “[h]uge segments of our population…completely unmoored from reality.” Have at it.

[Roll bread-crumb credits: peterwknox:robot-heart:mufti:emilyposts.]

1. ninjanikki liked this
2. quicklyslowly reblogged this from unicornology
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5. chelynne reblogged this from alilbit and added:

   BECAUSE SCHOOL TURNS US OFF TO BOOKS!!! EEEEEHHH No, I need to start reading more fo shooo

6. thisismewriting reblogged this from unicornology and added:

   For me this has been the complete opposite. Since graduating, I’ve read more books now than I ever read when I was...

7. agypsysoul reblogged this from mutations
8. mutations reblogged this from srsly and added:

   This is distressing.

9. arletty reblogged this from unicornology and added:

   OMG! WHAT THE CRAP IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10. dissembling reblogged this from unicornology
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13. kevinnat reblogged this from unicornology and added:

    I blame the school system. They insist on making us read the ‘classic’ books from a very young age. Books like Cry, The...

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19. missdelphine reblogged this from peterwknox
20. mittenstategirl reblogged this from peterwknox and added:

    citizen. It shows...profound lack of intelletual curiosity among adults

21. alilbit reblogged this from peterwknox and added:

    BUT WHYYYY??!?!?! T_T

22. boutofcontext reblogged this from peterwknox and added:

    PWK, whom I hear goes ‘all...way,’ pulled Chris Hedges’ quote:

23. erickd reblogged this from brilliantlydisruptive and added:

    This is horribly unbelievable.

24. jaycruz reblogged this from peterwknox and added:

    All I kept thinking while I read this

25. pearlsbeforeswine reblogged this from peterwknox
26. livesophia reblogged this from mikhailovna
27. alexbeaudet reblogged this from peterwknox and added:

    day after I graduated I thought to myself: What now? So I went...bookstore, bought some...

28. betterthancupcakes reblogged this from brilliantlydisruptive and added:

    Um. That’s seriously one of the saddest things I’ve heard!

29. brilliantlydisruptive reblogged this from peterwknox and added:

    robot-heart:mufti:emilyposts:

30. breannajai reblogged this from peterwknox and added:

    me. I cannnot imagine not reading. I wish...there were more hours

31. sparo reblogged this from peterwknox
32. peterwknox reblogged this from robot-heart and added:

    mufti:emilyposts: This is the scariest thing to...lover, a book writer (in dreams),

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38. lawful reblogged this from noahkai and added:

    I can’t get my head around that.

39. new-ditty reblogged this from sds
40. rtraube reblogged this from emilyposts
41. teaforonesvp reblogged this from robot-heart and added:

    This is scary. I’m very fortunate to grow up in a household that loves books. At first Mom and Dad were too busy to read...

42. yellowhat reblogged this from robot-heart and added:

    Yeah, I don’t read so many books as I used to. I’m getting more into writing mine, though.

43. sds reblogged this from robot-heart and added:

    Ugh. Not reading is completely unimaginable to me. I truly cannot remember the last time I wasn’t reading...

44. robot-heart reblogged this from mikhailovna and added:

    When I was in high school, my dad gave me a book he’d read while he was enlisted and stationed in Korea. I was shocked....

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