Literacy and elections

There is no question that there is more information available to us today than ever. And there are more sources for that information. Increasingly much of that information is coming in the form of video followed by the written word. So a March article on intellectualtakeout.org titled Americans Don’t Read… and that’s Affecting our Elections drew attention to the literacy problem in the U.S.

The author, Annie Holmquist, cited the following US Literacy statistics:

14% of adults can’t read

Only 13% of adults can read at a proficient level

28% of adults didn’t read a book in the last year

50% of adults can’t read a book written at an 8th grade level.

And that begs the question “what’s the harm?’

Well more than 350 years ago, John Adams thought that literacy had a major impact on one’s judgement which continues an essential part in evaluating candidates even in 2016.

For Adam’s thoughts, more on where the U.S. stands in world literacy rankings and the impact on our elections, Ms Holmquist’s article gives a brief but engaging read.