Study Finds 47 Percent of Detroiters are Functiona

[Deleted]

A new study shows a staggering number of metro Detroiters are unable to read.[/b

And is this "really" a surprise? There was a shift in priorities in the school systems about 20 to 25 years ago. The idea was that failing in school would make students feel like loser's. So no one failed. The only problem is that you take away failure & you also take away the drive to succeed & pass in school (why worry, they can't fail me). The end result is the dumbing down of America & a staggering number of metro Detroiters not knowing how to read. So here we are with a bunch of idiots that feel good about themselves. Don't you wonder who came up with the "feel good about yourself" idea?

[jarhead1976]

You have to love the public school system today. Teachers in Detroit should be ashamed. Parents in Detroit are a disgrace.

[hello fromWarsaw]

Smaller class size is the only thing that will work...Who won't spend money? ANOTHER false economy

[workpublic]

Smaller class size is the only thing that will work

puleeze. the teachers(products of the school system) are now ignorant. the communities are feral. you have to have something to work with. you could have one detroit teacher for every kid and the results would be the same.

i know all greedy pubs fault. cause greedy pubs control detroit and michigan

Big man, pig man, ha ha charade you are.
You well heeled big wheel, ha ha charade you are.
And when your hand is on your heart,
You're nearly a good laugh,
Almost a joker,
With your head down in the pig bin,
Saying "Keep on digging."
Pig stain on your fat chin.
What do you hope to find.
When you're down in the pig mine.
You're nearly a laugh,
You're nearly a laugh
But you're really a cry.

[ed1066]

In my experience with Detroit, the remaining 53% are marginal at best...

[Deleted]

Teachers in Detroit should be ashamed. Parents in Detroit are a disgrace.

I don't know if I agree that teachers should be ashamed. After all we (the people of the US) tied their hands a long time ago & then gave them an impossible job (hell they can't even enforce that the kids can't HIT them). As for the parents, yes they should be ashamed because at some point they must have known (& ignored).

This is just another example of something that was meant to be a positive but turned out to be a negative. People don't think this stuff through. It's in the same vein of helping "poor" people buy houses. Well they did & couldn't afford what they bought. It would have been better for the "poor" people just to have robbed them. At least that way we wouldn't have stolen years of their savings from them, we would have just gotten what was in their pocket that day.

[hello fromWarsaw]

I was a teacher. Class size is all important, unless you bring back capital punishment ;D. Especially in a war zone like Detroit. And I think the self esteem thing started more like 40 years ago. Time flies...

[hello fromWarsaw]

Letting worthy poor people buy houses WAS a good idea. Deregulating and stopping enforcement of rules so ANYONE, even unemployed, could buy, was a horrible Pub idea...letting banks and corporations run free, ditto.

[EVT1]

What does Floyd have to do with it? The pubs are greedy pig men?

[vonnie6200]

May 5, 2011 17:07:58 GMT -5 hello fromWarsaw said:

I was a teacher. Class size is all important, unless you bring back capital punishment ;D. Especially in a war zone like Detroit. And I think the self esteem thing started more like 40 years ago. Time flies...

Well - when I was in grade school the class size was 30 - 32 kids per class and we all learned to read.

[b2r]

2011 FORTUNE 500

5. Fannie Mae

Rank: 5 (Previous rank: 81)

money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2011/index.html

[Deleted]

Letting worthy poor people buy houses WAS a good idea.

Of course it was. The funny thing was that most that could qualify, did qualify. Changing the rules just allowed a lot of people that shouldn't have been allowed to buy houses, buy them. (My favorite was the couple making $35,000 per year being allowed to buy a $300,000 house. They lost EVERYTHING plus the house in the long run(because they tried everything to keep the house). The government did them NO favor.

Deregulating and stopping enforcement of rules so ANYONE, even unemployed, could buy, was a horrible Pub idea...letting banks and corporations run free, ditto.

Yes it was a terrible idea but if your saying Pub like it means Republican then you need to change that to DIM because that was bill drawn up & sponsored by the Democrats. The banks & corporations were just taking all the rope (& admittedly some extra) that the new law allowed them.

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

May 5, 2011 16:24:44 GMT -5 @oldtex said:

A new study shows a staggering number of metro Detroiters are unable to read.[/b

And is this "really" a surprise? There was a shift in priorities in the school systems about 20 to 25 years ago. The idea was that failing in school would make students feel like loser's. So no one failed. The only problem is that you take away failure & you also take away the drive to succeed & pass in school (why worry, they can't fail me). The end result is the dumbing down of America & a staggering number of metro Detroiters not knowing how to read. So here we are with a bunch of idiots that feel good about themselves. Don't you wonder who came up with the "feel good about yourself" idea?

[hello fromWarsaw]

So Pubs didn't deregulate (and cut enforcement)? That's funny... ;D
Bundled derivatives and AIG insurance of toxic assets (GREAT investment!!) was a GREAT idea!! See 2nd deregulation and fraud, boom and bust PUB world wide Great Depression...too bloody obvious?

And Vonnie, times have changed since Leave it to Beaver...

[vonnie6200]

May 5, 2011 18:14:47 GMT -5 hello fromWarsaw said:

So Pubs didn't deregulate (and cut enforcement)? That's funny... ;D
Bundled derivatives and AIG insurance of toxic assets (GREAT investment!!) was a GREAT idea!! See 2nd deregulation and fraud, boom and bust PUB world wide Great Depression...too bloody obvious?

And Vonnie, times have changed since Leave it to Beaver...

Oh yes I know - reading has gotten so much harder.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

So what is being done to fix this illiteracy problem in Detroit?

[vonnie6200]

May 5, 2011 18:33:59 GMT -5 ❤ mollymouser ❤ said:

So what is being done to fix this illiteracy problem in Detroit?

I believe I read a few weeks ago that they are closing 1/2 of their schools.

[billisonboard]

May 5, 2011 16:24:44 GMT -5 @oldtex said:

A new study shows a staggering number of metro Detroiters are unable to read.[/b

And is this "really" a surprise? There was a shift in priorities in the school systems about 20 to 25 years ago. The idea was that failing in school would make students feel like loser's. So no one failed. The only problem is that you take away failure & you also take away the drive to succeed & pass in school (why worry, they can't fail me). The end result is the dumbing down of America & a staggering number of metro Detroiters not knowing how to read. So here we are with a bunch of idiots that feel good about themselves. Don't you wonder who came up with the "feel good about yourself" idea?

What was the functional literacy rate in Detroit 20 to 25 years ago? Was it in fact higher than it is now?

The percentage of high school dropouts, ages 16-24, has declined since 1960. The percentage of male students who dropped out of high school has decreased from 27.8% in 1960 to 8.5% in 2008. The percentage of female dropouts has decreased from 26.7% to 7.5%.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I guess my question is more geared to post-school-aged ADULTS living in Detroit. What's being done to help them gain literacy, I wonder.

[formerexpat]

The study released by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund finds that 47 percent of adults in Detroit are functionally illiterate.

They never needed to know how to read with the $50k a year job waiting for them at Ford or GM with no skills or intelligence needed.

[billisonboard]

May 5, 2011 19:51:52 GMT -5 @toughtimes said:

How certain are we that the test was valid? Many have their own agendas nowadays. It reminds me of Stephen Jay Gould's discussion of "Intelligence Tests" given in English to non-English speakers. Since they all failed, they must be idiots. Gould's book, "The Mismeasure of Man" is quite old, but still true.

The Detroit and Southeast Michigan Fund for Innovative Workforce Solutions (Detroit Regional Workforce Fund) was created to address the growing gap between the skills workers in Michigan currently have and those they will need to fill the thousands of middle-skill jobs that studies are predicting will exist as our state emerges from its current economic recession.

They certainly have the incentive to find a large number of people "functionally illiterate."

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

<<Study Finds 47 Percent of Detroiters are Functionally Illiterate>>

I'll bet every one of them can pick out the letter "D" on a voting ballot.

[Deleted]

So Pubs didn't deregulate (and cut enforcement)? That's funny...

No, I don't think it's funny because is screwed a lot of poor people. I think that it's odd that you brought it up & yet you didn't know that the rules were loosened by a Democrat bill & passed by a democrat controlled congress.

[NastyWoman]

[quote
What was the functional literacy rate in Detroit 20 to 25 years ago? Was it in fact higher than it is now?

The percentage of high school dropouts, ages 16-24, has declined since 1960. The percentage of male students who dropped out of high school has decreased from 27.8% in 1960 to 8.5% in 2008. The percentage of female dropouts has decreased from 26.7% to 7.5%.

[/quote]

But does that mean that all those kids with HS diplomas can read?

As for small classes: my kids did great in small classes ->private international shools 20-22kids/class. However so did their parents (XH and I) who as part of the boomer generation rarely attended classes with less than 40 kids! There is much more to the problems our educational system than just class size.

Maybe it is time to look at what worked say 50 years ago, which of the changes we implemented since that time that improved education and just do away with the rest.

[Deleted]

"23-year-old Brandon Jackson showed us his diploma, but he is only reading at a tenth grade level. He came to Pro-Literacy Detroit to get help so he can go to college."

mmmhh... what definition are they using? 10th grade level is definately literate....

[moxie]

So much for "No Child Left Behind."

[Deleted]

"The average newspaper is written for a person reading at an 8th grade level. "

I'm pretty sure you're over estimating. I know much popular fiction is written around 5-6th...

[Deleted]

Like who? whom? lol...

[Mkitty is pro kitty]

In my experience with Detroit, the remaining 53% are marginal at best...

You must have been really busy analyzing 700,000 people's reading skills. How did you ever find the time?

I'll bet every one of them can pick out the letter "D" on a voting ballot.

Well even the functionally illiterate aren't stupid enough to buy into "live poor, vote rich" trickle down crapola.

Democrat bill & passed by a democrat controlled congress.

Be a dear and tell us who was President at the time.

Want a hint?

[Deleted]

Or when you only take a section of the graph, or when you elongate the axis so that an increase of one looks like a mountain, etc, etc,...

I also will recommend again, even though its geared toward middle- high school children, Critical Thinkings in United States History... awesome book on how to spot fallacy and how to vet a source, etc.