November 13, 2008
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. quicklyslowly reblogged this from unicornology
  2. eemiily reblogged this from mutations
  3. recycledphrases reblogged this from unicornology
  4. chelynne reblogged this from alilbit and added:
    BECAUSE SCHOOL TURNS US OFF TO BOOKS!!! EEEEEHHH No, I need to start reading more fo shooo
  5. 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...
  6. agypsysoul reblogged this from mutations
  7. mutations reblogged this from srsly and added:
    This is distressing.
  8. arletty reblogged this from unicornology and added:
    OMG! WHAT THE CRAP IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  9. dissembling reblogged this from unicornology
  10. catherinehepburn reblogged this from unicornology
  11. firstsight reblogged this from missdelphine
  12. 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...
  13. bringmethathorizon reblogged this from unicornology
  14. kaysie reblogged this from unicornology
  15. unicornology reblogged this from srsly
  16. srsly reblogged this from mittenstategirl
  17. missdelphine reblogged this from peterwknox
  18. mittenstategirl reblogged this from peterwknox and added:
    citizen. It shows...profound lack of intelletual curiosity among adults
  19. alilbit reblogged this from peterwknox and added:
    BUT WHYYYY??!?!?! T_T
  20. boutofcontext reblogged this from peterwknox and added:
    PWK, whom I hear goes ‘all...way,’ pulled Chris Hedges’ quote:
  21. erickd reblogged this from brilliantlydisruptive and added:
    This is horribly unbelievable.
  22. jaycruz reblogged this from peterwknox and added:
    All I kept thinking while I read this
  23. pearlsbeforeswine reblogged this from peterwknox
  24. livesophia reblogged this from mikhailovna
  25. alexbeaudet reblogged this from peterwknox and added:
    day after I graduated I thought to myself: What now? So I went...bookstore, bought some...
  26. betterthancupcakes reblogged this from brilliantlydisruptive and added:
    Um. That’s seriously one of the saddest things I’ve heard!
  27. brilliantlydisruptive reblogged this from peterwknox and added:
    robot-heart:mufti:emilyposts:
  28. breannajai reblogged this from peterwknox and added:
    me. I cannnot imagine not reading. I wish...there were more hours
  29. sparo reblogged this from peterwknox
  30. peterwknox reblogged this from robot-heart and added:
    mufti:emilyposts: This is the scariest thing to...lover, a book writer (in dreams),
  31. pinupsundae reblogged this from bowfolk
  32. bowfolk reblogged this from robot-heart
  33. lawful reblogged this from noahkai and added:
    I can’t get my head around that.
  34. new-ditty reblogged this from sds
  35. rtraube reblogged this from emilyposts
  36. 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...
  37. 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.
  38. 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...
  39. 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....
  40. shiningstar reblogged this from mikhailovna
  41. shorterexcerpts reblogged this from emilyposts
  42. mikhailovna reblogged this from emilyposts
  43. emilyposts posted this