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Literacy - Blog Posts
as a British person, this is horrifying. How do schools let this slide? My school would never let this happen. America truly is a dystopian reality. Though I suppose American schools are banning actually educational books so I do kinda see why this would be the case.
Quick question, genuine question:
Why on earth does "more than half of US adults under 30 cannot read above an elementary school level" not strike horror into the heart of everyone who hears it?
Are the implications of it unclear????
I'm serious, people keep reacting with a sort of vague dismissal when I point this out, and I want to know why!
If adults in the US cannot read, then the only information they have access to is TV and video, the spaces with the most egregious and horrific misinformation!
If they cannot read, they cannot escape that misinformation.
This obscene lack of literacy should strike fear into every heart! US TV is notoriously horrific propaganda!
Is that???? Not??? Obvious???????
I know this sounds sarcastic, I know it does, but I'm completely serious here. I do not understand where the disconnect is.
ETA: This post continues here, with citations
Libraries are the heart and the canary of a community, just saying.
Destroy the myth that libraries are no longer relevant. If you use your library, please reblog.
A lifechanging thing to point out
Just in case nobody realized this, you can download the Read Aloud app, and listen to fanfiction or stories while working on drawing. Or you can render text with Balabolka and put music in the background with a video editor, upload as a private video and enjoy it on a walk. Don't forget a speed up extension to get through things extra efficiently. You can even purchase a higher quality robot voice if you do this a lot. You're welcome. Remember, taking advantage of technology is a form of being more literate.
"The computer's processes have unwittingly advanced the cause of women and images, even though these aspects of computer operation have nothing to do with the computer's content, which is the manipulation of information. The world of cyberspace is a computer-generated extension of the human mind into another dimension. The computer has carried human communication across a threshold as significant as writing, and cyberspaces's reliance on electromagnetism and photographic reproduction will only lead to further adjustments in consciousness that favor a feminine worldview. Irrespective of content, the processes used to maneuver in cyberspace are essentially right hemispheric. The World Wide Web and the Internet are both metaphors redolent of feminine connotations."
-The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain
A pretty interesting read. It analyzes the advancement in literacy throughout time and some of its pros and cons. It also brings up how we have become predominantly left brained due to the (often forced) use of our right hands, and how this has promoted linear thinking. It may not be a common practice anymore, but I've heard stories of educators hitting left-handed kids with rulers until they learned to write with their right hand. It's a strange thing to enforce, and it really makes one think...
The advancement in technology has a dark side, but the author suggests that some good will emerge in a new "Golden Age" where both right and left brain thinking reach some sort of equilibrium with the use of the internet. This is also interesting since I've been seeing parents, educators, and whoever else talking about the decline in reading amongst children. I'm starting to wonder if there will be a larger shift from text and back to image. Picture books/graphic novels seem to be grasping the attention of adults and children alike more and more throughout the years (if they weren't already). This is an observation of the English language, of course, since there are places that utilize symbols and characters in their writing.
Rumah Tak Berkunci
@miakamiya
Aku terjaga tepat pukul 2 dini hari. Bukan karena mimpi seram atau bertemu idola, namun mimpi absurd yang menjawab keresahanku selama beberapa tahun belakangan. Seperti alam bawah sadarku yang ingin memberitahu bahwa setiap keresahan, kecemasan, ketakutan yang kualami, diri sendiri jugalah yang tahu penyembuhannya.
Mimpi itu masih teringat jelas hingga saat ini. Aku duduk di kursi penumpang pada kendaraan roda dua yang mengantarkanku ke sebuah rumah, menyusuri deretan pohon-pohon besar dan kokoh.
Ketika sampai di halaman rumah asing itu, sang pengemudi berkata, “Rumah itu tidak ada kuncinya.” Ia lalu sengaja menabrakkan kendaraannya ke pagar besi yang juga tidak memiliki kunci. Bunyi berdentang barusan dipakai olehnya sebagai “ketukan” agar si empunya rumah keluar.
Seorang wanita berkerudung keluar rumah. Wajahnya bersih dan teduh, senyumnya berwibawa, lalu ia berjalan menghampiriku dan bertanya dengan suaranya yang tak kalah berkarisma.
“Apa yang kaucari di sini?” Sebuah pertanyaan ganjil dan lekas kujawab tak kalah ganjil. “Aku mencari ketenangan,” kataku.
Aku tidak percaya dengan jawabanku sendiri. Namun, tatapanku begitu pasrah dan payah.
Itulah jawaban paling jujur yang pernah kusampaikan dalam hidupku. Wanita paruh baya itu tersenyum. Wajahnya memiliki karisma yang sama dengan guru mengajiku saat belajar di surau dulu.
“Apa yang membuatmu tidak tenang?”
Pertanyaannya membuatku kembali mengingat semua peristiwa yang pernah kualami. Cemas, takut, kecewa, pahit, kosong, hingga mati rasa.
Seakan tahu apa yang kupikirkan, ia kembali bertanya, “Apa kauyakin apa yang kaucari ada di sini?” Aku menatap matanya dalam.
22/9/2021
💮"You are killing me, and you are keeping me from dying. That's love"💮
- | Mahmoud Darwish |
♠ You don't deserve something for what you'll pity yourself later on.
The way a student of mine tried to argue that he didn’t need to learn how to read outside of the basics because “it’s not necessary anymore. We have AI.” He had a whole (obviously poorly worded, he couldn’t use AI when talking to me) speech.
I’m seriously concerned about my students. They’re 14-15 and a lot of them are bordering on illiterate. Their English teacher plays the audiobooks for their assigned reading to them because there’s no other way to keep the stuff that they do “at grade level.” They simply refuse to read because it’s SO HARD for them (and some just can’t.)
📢📢📢
Someone I know is making moves.
Today’s study session is excruciatingly boring. Conjunctions, clauses, and netiquette. I know I wouldn’t take this business communications course if I didn’t need my literacy credit. It bores me to tears some days.
My motto for the semester? Good enough. It’s helped me through many study sessions and assignments.
For every bad person you meet there's a good one, whenever you start to lose faith in humanity, remember that.
~ Personal Thoughts
oops! it seems i tripped and dropped several million free books, papers, and other resources
https://annas-archive.org
https://sci-hub.se
https://z-lib.is
https://libgen.is
https://libgen.rs
https://www.pdfdrive.com
https://library.memoryoftheworld.org
https://monoskop.org/Monoskop
https://libcom.org
https://libretexts.org
http://classics.mit.edu
https://librivox.org
https://standardebooks.org
https://www.gutenberg.org
https://core.ac.uk
In the words of the great Terry Pratchett, education is just like a sexually transmitted disease: It incapacitates you for a lot of jobs, and then you get the urge to pass it on.
