The general decline in standards today

[AtomicEraTom]

I was just talking at work yesterday about how when I worked 1st shift, I did a lot of reading. My co-workers looked at me like I was crazy and asked me 'why would you waste your time on books?'

 

[angeljenny]

I was just talking at work yesterday about how when I worked 1st shift, I did a lot of reading. My co-workers looked at me like I was crazy and asked me 'why would you waste your time on books?'

When I first started work I was on a training wage and some weeks I would chose to buy a nice vintage book over lunch! That was perhaps a little crazy but books are as essential to me as food.

Books are magical things!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The literacy rate in America has been declining since the early 1990s. Right now about 14 percent of the adult population is functionally illiterate. Nearly *half the population* of Detroit is functionally illiterate.

Barbarism.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

Books don't get viruses, have their batteries go dead, or get totally trashed when you drop them (o.k. depends on how high). I AM trying to cut down on the number of books that I buy, and I've been giving a few to the library. I'm up to 50 books this year so far I think.

Later

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The literacy rate in America has been declining since the early 1990s. Right now about 14 percent of the adult population is functionally illiterate. Nearly *half the population* of Detroit is functionally illiterate.

Barbarism.

What blows my mind is that many of these functional illiterates are even college grads! How they managed to get through school I have no idea.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

At my old job, I had 2 15 minute breaks and a half hour lunch. Trying to lose weight, I didn't eat, and reading kept my mind off the hunger. An hour of reading a day makes you feel very accomplished, as well!

When I first started work I was on a training wage and some weeks I would chose to buy a nice vintage book over lunch! That was perhaps a little crazy but books are as essential to me as food.

Books are magical things!

 

[bil_maxx]

This is barbarism, plain and simple.

My grandparents were not educated people by any stretch of the imagination -- they were ordinary early 20th century working class folk who got out of school as soon as they possibly could. But their home contained works by Shakespeare, Dickens, and Twain, a good selection of quality novels from the twenties thru the fifties, an encyclopedia, an unabridged dictonary, and several translations of the Bible. They also took a daily newspaper, the local weekly, and several popular magazines. And this was by no means exceptional for their culture. Even the poorest home had room for books.

Agreed. I have a number of friends and acquaintances haven't opened a book since high school. They don't read with their kids or encourage them to read at all. I came from a different home. We all read all the time and my parents never had enough bookshelves, which is the exact same challenge I face in my home. Every bedroom has bookshelves as well as the living room, family room and many walls in the basement. I'm not saying that reading is the be all and end all, as my kids are well rounded and are very good at sports and music too, but it is an important component to learning about the world that the vast majority of kids are missing out on.

My dad emigrated to Canada in the early 1960s, not speaking a single word of English. His first move after finding a job was to take English lessons. Within 2 years, he was completely fluent and has NO accent at all. People who meet him have a hard time believing he is not a native speaker, but he told me that he only took the lessons for a few months then he read everything he could get his hands on, starting with the 3 local daily papers. Pretty powerful evidence that reading works in my opinion.

 

[JimWagner]

In the summer of 1965 I was working on a railroad yard as a carman apprentice rebuilding and repairing boxcars. That's where I met the first adult who couldn't read I'd ever seen. Dave, not his real name, had grown up in the depression and hadn't learned how to read in the 6 years of education he'd attended. Dave wasn't unintelligent and he hid his illiteracy with all kinds of workarounds. For example, cards were attached to boxcars with check boxes for all the standard repairs, things like bent ladders, sprung door tracks, which side, front or back, etc. Dave knew by the position of the check boxes on the list exactly what to look for and you'd never know he couldn't read by the way he worked.

Dave was very good at his job. Being able to read and write were job requirements. Almost everyone knew Dave could do neither and we all covered for him in subtle ways, including our foreman. If there were several repairs to be done on a boxcar, one of which might not be covered by the standard check boxes, Dave might start on the first one, be at the other end of the car from the card and just simply call back, "What's next?" and I'd let him know.

Dave wasn't proud of being illiterate. He'd get embarrassed if you tried to talk to him about it. His own kids could read and write just fine. Dave had some fairly ingenious ways of dealing with a world filled with signs and other written materials.

Dave respected education and wanted it for his kids. He knew I was only working the yards as a summer job on my way to college and really encouraged me continue that path and not end up a railroad laborer like him.

Contrast Dave with today's "functional illiterates".

 

[sheeplady]

If you have a computer, you don't need actual books. Maybe these households rely on internet/e-books for that need?

A computer that is capable of doing more than non-text games is considered a "reading material" as would something like an e-book. The child needs to have access to it at a very young age, however, and one of the problems brought up with e-books, computers, and smartphones is that children typically don't have unrestricted and unsupervised access at a young age (some do, so that is great). The ability of a child to browse these materials at any time at a very young age is critical, even if they can't read yet.

This is a phenomeon that also pre-dates e-books, the earliest citations I could find that were looking into "reading material free homes" were from the early 80s- 1982 is the earliest. I'm sure there was work done before that, I'm too lazy to go to an actual database that lists paper articles and then go to the library right now to see if they are relevant. I think a librarian (I know there are several on here), especially a childhood librarian, would know more about this than me. I only know this from attending seminars.

I agree with LizzieMaine- there really is no excuse for it even if you really are very impoverished- which I don't think all of these homes are. I went to a baby shower and I bought 3 books for the child, and I was told snottily that books weren't on the registry. I don't do registries, and I thought books were a nice gift.

 

[Undertow]

When discussing the collapse of a society, one runs the risk of sounding insane. There have been folks predicting the end of times since the beginning of times. This Camping fellow is a timely example.

On the other hand, the Third Reich was planned to last 1000 years. The Romans really didn't see the Germanic tribes as a threat. The Soviet Union fell on its own sword in under 100 years. The Mongol tribes very similiary came from the dust only to return to the dust. Certainly, life marched onward as long as a piece of ground remained inhabitable, but the important thing was that these civilizations didn't lose their technologies of survival. Even the modern civilizations like the Russians and Germans still had the ability to fend for themselves as society pulled itself back together. I mean to say, these people knew how to start a fire, how to make clothes, how to cook, how to survive.

By the way, I'm not at all referring to an utter collapse of the world population as a result of some massive, destructive phenomenon (although one can't rule that out, god forbid). I mean what will happen when order folds and chaos introduced?

Currently, the US Dollar is the reserve currency for the entire world. Should the dollar collapse, who do you suppose will run the lights? Without power, how might one charge their iPad? And when you quickly realize an iPad makes for a poor hand axe, where do you think the iPad is thrown? Similiarly, learning to butcher rabbits sounds ridiculous doesn't it? But how silly will it sound when you realize a degree in journalism won't help you construct a clay oven to cook?

I know it sounds like "worst-case scenario" stuff, but simply review the last 100 years. How do you suppose people survived when their entire city was bombed? How do Iraqis survive when their towns are bombed? What did the Germans do to cope with hyperinflation? What are the Congolese and Zimbabwe peoples doing to cope with hyperinflation? Look at the Wild West - some of those old gangs lived in clapboard shacks eating lizards and drinking stagnant water.

I don't propose that we should learn how to fashion hand tools out of bones, but wouldn't it be helpful if our society knew how to skin a rabbit or build a reliable fire? My argument is that our modern society is un-learning how to survive, even with modern hand tools.

 

[Widebrim]

I came from a different home. We all read all the time and my parents never had enough bookshelves, which is the exact same challenge I face in my home. Every bedroom has bookshelves as well as the living room, family room and many walls in the basement.

I've got the same problem! While I was growing up, it was considered a sin in my home to throw a book away, especially by my mother. My father, whose first languages were Italian and Castilian Spanish, did not get past junior high, due to his family needing him back on the farm in Pennsylvania. However, he was a great reader, an "amateur expert" (forgive the contradictory term) on history, sports, and politics. My mother read even more than him, and today complains that (at age 91) she has nobody to converse with on an equal level...

 

[JimWagner]

I finally came to grips with the fact that my house was collapsing under the weight of all the books I've bought and kept over the years and tossed about half of them so far. It hurt to do it, but realistically I wasn't rereading anything, just buying more. Now, for the most part, I still read just as much but on my Kindle or Xoom where it really doesn't matter how many books I keep. I'm probably averaging 5 books a week these days.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have no idea how many books I have. If you can count them, you don't have enough. I'm a firm believer that "a room without books is a room without a soul." The most soulless man I ever knew -- a radio executive I once worked for -- had *fake* books in his living room, blocks of wood with paper overlays to simulate covers. That may well be the single most degenerate thing I've ever heard of.

Computer device reading doesn't cut it for me -- it hurts my eyes, and I don't like the single-page-view format. When I find long articles online I want to read, the only way I can stand to do it is print them out first.

 

[Atticus Finch]

The most soulless man I ever knew -- a radio executive I once worked for -- had *fake* books in his living room, blocks of wood with paper overlays to simulate overs...

I love it! And I'm guessing your radio executive was a HairClub client, too.

AF

 

[Undertow]

...That may well be the single most degenerate thing I've ever heard of...

Man! Ain't that the truth!

 

[scooter]

I know may of you are familiar with the hit show "Mad Men". I have an interesting theory that our "decline in standards" actually was initiated by these fellows and their ilk. These men are the ones who coined the theory that, as my old business partner once told me, if you told the customer the whole truth he wouldn't buy anything. You can see it in all aspects of the advertising community, and I think that slowly but surely, as people became more aware they were being lied to by "sales professionals" in order to separate them from their money, they made the leap that if it was being done to them, it should be done by them as a matter of survival. Over time, it has pervaded our entire existence. Many of us, myself included, assume they are being mislead in most transactions and it is a rare individual who does not commit a "lie of ommision". Think about the commercials we see, about a Kia being judged superior to a Honda or some such. Perhaps the only thing superior is the brightness of the interior light, but by ommitting details, the salesman can claim "honesty" while in fact, lying thru his teeth. I believe that we as a society, (obviously there are exceptions) have stumbled down this dangerous path by rationalizing our behaviour as something that everyone does.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

I'm not sure that sales has ever been considered that ethical a profession. And I speak as the daughter of realtors (who some consider on par with the used car salesman). The elevation of advertising could be a symptom, but... consider the snake oil medicines of the 19th/early 20th century. Not exactly truth in advertising.

And about those books. You do realize there are companies that sell "books by the yard" don't you? I understand there's a decent business in selling high-priced tomes to the rich but vacuous who want to properly decorate their unused library. To be fair though, some wealthy people use that service to quickly accumulate books on subjects they enjoy, but don't have the time to shop for.

 

[scottyrocks]

Advertising is in its own special category. Sort of like politics.

 

[sheeplady]

Advertising is in its own special category. Sort of like politics.

The problem is there are so many "special categories" of professions...

 

[AtomicEraTom]

My biggest complaint as well, is that reading online is so tough on the eyes. I've tried lights on, off, glasses, no glasses, can't make the computer screen not hurt my eyes.

I have no idea how many books I have. If you can count them, you don't have enough. I'm a firm believer that "a room without books is a room without a soul." The most soulless man I ever knew -- a radio executive I once worked for -- had *fake* books in his living room, blocks of wood with paper overlays to simulate covers. That may well be the single most degenerate thing I've ever heard of.

Computer device reading doesn't cut it for me -- it hurts my eyes, and I don't like the single-page-view format. When I find long articles online I want to read, the only way I can stand to do it is print them out first.