It doesn't matter how long you make them read Lenin and break rocks in the gulag, the second you let them out they'll see an AI generated meme from a CIA holdout posting from a bunker somewhere and immediately revert to being a burgerbrained fash.

I think we need to just dump them on an island somewhere and put them under continuous naval blockade and internet blackout till they revert to a Hunter gather society.

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[–] junebug2@hexbear.net 32 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

i do sometimes really agree with the idea behind “horses surrounded by oceans of drinkable water”. but the sheer number of kids i have seen turn from belligerent to enthusiastic about education because they were moved closer to the board or given glasses is unreal.

it’s worth noting that the median USAmerican reads at a 6th grade level. what that means is they can read a page of info, and then tell you what the words on the page mean and report back on the basic content of the page. abstract or critical thinking problems are beyond them. half of people are worse off. it is more accurate to say that most people in our pig country will need education, not re-education.

even for young people, from the 1990s to the early 2010s, most school districts required reading to be taught incorrectly. an unfortunately mistaken psychologist thought that guessing at words from the first letters and the picture should be taught instead of phonics. the above is essentially the strategy of certain “middle readers”, and the idea was that the “good” cohort would sort themselves out, and teaching a different strategy to the “bad” cohort would help them. what happened is that the “good” cohort does figure some things out, and the other two don’t learn how to read.

holding a kid back a grade was also basically banned by no child left behind, so you’d just advance fourteen year olds reading at a second grade level