14 Percent of U.S. Adults Can't Read

Live Science ^ | 01/10/09 | Robert Roy Britt

[highlander_UW]

And I bet virtually all of them are democrats.

[NinoFan]

Californians are the least literate according to this survey. 23% are illiterate. NY was just one percentage point lower.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/018433.html

[Amelia]

It is **impossible** to expect 100% when working with real people. The **rational** goal is to reach as many as possible. Clearly our current system of government schools presents a of model of teaching that is an utter failure for too many. Although we do see success with the government school model with functional families to apply this to children from dysfunctional homes, and then when they fail, blame the parents is absurd in the extreme.

Hi, wintertime, hope you are doing well.

We apparently agree that the current model of schooling is successful with children from functional families. In fact, this model has been successful for many years with children from functional families, which is why it has persisted for so long.

We also seem to agree that our current system of schooling is much less successful for children from dysfunctional families, who are making up an ever-larger proportion of the students in our public school system, particularly in inner cities. This is a major problem.

We agree that models such as KIPP schools have been very successful with some of these children, when the parents are willing to take the responsibilities required for enrollment in such schools.

The big question is, what do we do about the other children from dysfunctional families?

I don't know the answer to that question, and apparently neither do you.

[wintertime]

The big question is, what do we do about the other children from dysfunctional families?
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Possibly boarding schools.

What is needed is a free market so that the best solutions can emerge. We aren't going to see innovation coming from our sclerotic government schools.

[wintertime]

We apparently agree that the current model of schooling is successful with children from functional families.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We don't agree on this. I contend that academically successful children are successful due to the parent and child's “afterschooling”. They are successful **in spite** of being incarcerated in prison-like settings ( mis-named government schools).