I don’t always think of republicans as evil - sometimes I think they have idealistic (if misguided) reasons; some for instance may think that having uneducated workers will draw industry in, because it makes them cost competitive with other states. Still, incredibly short sighted.
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Often it is that bad. Single parents working two part-time shifts can’t get home to read to their kids (assuming that they themselves can read – this can easily become a multi-generational problem).
I’ve also been in middle-class households where there was not a book or magazine or newspaper (how quaint) in sight. People who can’t read are a problem, but there are plenty of American at all levels of society who don’t or won’t read. Strange though it may seem to us, reading for pleasure is just not a priority for a lot of people, and reading for education is seen by them as a burden with no ROI.
I’ve seen signs of that degeneration over the years. For example, compare a current issue of People magazine with one from the 1980s – the newer one is almost all photographs. Also, due to the effects of the Internet, even some educated people are reporting that they’re less inclined than they used to be to read a long-form article or a full novel.
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He apparently dictates many of them to staffers (no, really) but it’s hard to believe he has someone at his bedside at 3am just to help him vent at whatever celebrity got him ruffled that day. There are depths that even Russian sex workers won’t go to.
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I’m going with “illegiterate.”
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Many are horrified that children are not being educated, while expecting them to become educators once they’ve procreated.
This template can be applied to many of our societal ills.
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Well, that is the local culture:
Deep South: Dixie still traces its roots to the caste system established by masters who tried to duplicate West Indies-style slave society, Woodard writes. The Old South values states’ rights and local control and fights the expansion of federal powers.
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Obvious conservative talking point-- Detroit’s illiteracy problem proves public education is a failure.
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This exactly. There’s a difference between “total illiteracy,” which is what most people think of when they hear the term, and functional illiteracy, which is “Read this sentence and explain what it means.”
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Like I said above, I know some people are completely hands off. They leave it to the school, and then don’t make sure things like homework is done or what ever. It’s a “not my job” attitude. I am not sure why. It isn’t just poor people, though, as that attitude persists among some all the way up. I remember reading a case study about this in the Atlantic years ago, and that was the conclusion the Berkley professor came up with when looking at the test scores of one upper class school. Though, you know, case study, which isn’t always applicable across the board.
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I think part of the problem is that too many parents in the working class are busting ass at 2 or 3 jobs, just to pay rent and put food on the table. They have to trust that their kid is getting an education, because they literally don’t have the time to check up on their kids education. The fact that you and I have the ability to do so is a serious privilege.
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Honestly - it’s a time thing, I think. It’s incredibly sad, but I very true. The pinch that we’ve all been feeling in the past couple of decades is even tighter for the working poor.
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Also, just quality of life. I read to my daughter constantly, but I read to her for longer, more patiently, more adventurously, and more enthusiastically depending on the day I’ve had. If I’m stressed about work, took self-esteem hits, or am feeling generally despondent, my parenting has an off day too. For people with the multiple persistent stressors provided by living in poverty, the challenges are ever present.
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Hard to do the things we have time to do when you’re working 3 jobs to put food on the table (and still only squeaking by).
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A million times ^THIS. You’ve put a tidy nutshell around why economic recovery has been slower in Michigan than, say, Minnesota. We have the double whammy of having bad roads, too. You could lower corporate taxes to 0% (and the dipshits in Lansing did in 2011, while simultaneously increasing the effective tax rate on working people by eliminating tax credits for anyone who isn’t dirt poor), and no corporations will move into your state if your schools and infrastructure are shit.
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I think that’s a fair and important point that most parents these days can relate to. I know I struggle with this myself - both I and my wife have careers and while our kids are important, our lives don’t only revolve around them. My kids spend similar amounts of time with the before/after school programs as with us in the evenings and my wife and I work “normal” 8-5 type jobs. Cooking a healthy meal and getting them to bed on time (this is so hard) take us most of our time during the week without factoring in other activities for me or them.
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I was about to call bullshit on that link, but I read it, and it’s really pretty accurate. I’ve lived in the Midlands/Greater Appalachia border region for the vast majority of my life, and I am obviously not a Yankee, even though I’ve only ever lived in Northern states.
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And presumably, you have a middle class standard of living? It’s hard for anyone, so throw all the various stress of being working poor to that.
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There’s a lot of that. It is not only hard to get out of poverty, but it’s hard for poorer people to raise kids who will get out of poverty themselves. It’s a multi-generational issue.
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Exactly. It’s not that they don’t care about their kids, it’s that they don’t have time to do the things that those of us with more financially security can do. And that is indeed multi-generational.
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