Literacy to be a class privilege

[Comrade-Z]

I came across a very strange article at MSNBC today.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14823087/

This sentiment specifically was rather disturbing:


"Some positions in society do require significant literacy skills: senior managers, screenwriters, scientists and others need a highly efficient way to absorb and communicate abstract thought. A broad written vocabulary and strong compositional skills are also powerful ways to organize and plan large enterprises, whether that means launching a new product, making a movie or creating legislation. But for the vast number of the workers who actually carry out those plans, the same skills are far less crucial. The nation’s leaders must be able to read; for those who follow, the ability should be strictly optional.

We have made at least two generations of American children miserable trying to teach them a skill that only a small percentage of them really need. And we have wasted billions of dollars that might well have gone for more practical education and training.

In 2025 it’s time to put reading into perspective for the remainder of the 21st century: it is a luxury, not a necessity!"

(My bolding).

A society unable to (or even fearful of) educating its citizens--a sign of the decay of a social order if I ever saw one.

[piet11111]

its things like this that give me assurance that as a marxist i am right in my conclusions that capitalism will eventually self destruct.

even though its just an article it is a clear sign of despair of the capitalists being unable to keep their monstrous system running.

[Spirit of Spartacus]

its things like this that give me assurance that as a marxist i am right in my conclusions that capitalism will eventually self destruct.


Without concerted political action on the part of the masses, capitalism doesn't self-destruct.

We've got to join the mass of people suffering under the system, and re-direct their energy towards crushing it.

[bolshevik butcher]

Yes, we only recieve an education so that we can be the most productive workers after we leave school. It must also be understood that the ideas present in education are the ideas of the ruling class. However some gains have beenmade by the labour movement that have resulted in better education, and more general education. We must oppose any moves like this as an attack on universal education, surley a socialist principle.

[Tatarin]

1984 all over again - eradication of language to prevent a "counter-revolution" anyone?

[Severian]

It's probably an April Fools/Modest Proposal type of suggestion.

Even if you take it at face value, he's not suggesting illiteracy is OK; just suggesting people don't need to read long books. Aliteracy in that sense may be spreading....and if so, yes, that's unfortunate.

The real-world trend is, in fact, for more education for widening layers of the population. The one study cited doesn't contradict that, though it's probably alarming for college literature professors.

[Kia]

The article is offering a hypothesis for what could happen in the future based off current trends which is interesting but doesnt make it true at all.
The article fails to give an explantion of the tests detials, which might help understand why more failed compared to a decade ago. Frankly i dont think the illiteracy thing is true, rather that language (specifically english) is being slowly revolutionized from the style used during victorian period till late 1800s, due to a massive increase in the last 100years of communication between people from all over the world. the common everyday spoken and written language is being changed to allow people to communicate more easily with each other. Languages decline slowly and get reformed into new ones..its history.

Spellcheck and such though are a thing to take note of. I find even writing this damn response that i dont know exactly how to spell some of the words im using and my grammar is awful. A solution to this problem is to promote education even more throughout the world. bolshevik butcher's comment about universal education being a socialist principle is a key thing all leftists should remember.

The 1984 fear i think is completely irrational. Language cannot be irradicated from man. No government or organization could remove language completely; even if they were to destroy the main language of the proleteriat a new language would apear in its place. To completely irradicate language from the working class would require you to chop of peoples arms so they couldnt write or sign, remove the tongue so they couldnt speak, remove the soundbox also because even without a tongue certain sounds can be made and a language could be formed from that, youd have to also remove peoples toes as well since people can write with their feet, along with destroying all written and audio that the common man may have accces too. Basically one would have to go to some extreme lengths to do it. the fact is: language is now permentely ingrained into humanity.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 15, 2006 02:57 pm
Spellcheck and such though are a thing to take note of. I find even writing this damn response that i dont know exactly how to spell some of the words im using and my grammar is awful.
Spellcheck only works for people who already know how to spell. Otherwise - it gives you a list of possible spellings, and if you pick the wrong one you may get a similar word that means something totally different. That's actually worse than having a misspelled word.

Really. I've seen at least one internet poster who couldn't spell and started using spellcheck heavily, and it actually made his posts harder to understand. When you say "irradicate" and "im" at least I know you mean eradicate and I'm. If spellcheck puts in cowpokes for coworkers it takes a moment even to realize there's an error - 'cause the word is perfectly spelled. Breaks the flow of reading.

Really we need a drastically reformed system of spelling English so people (including people around the world) don't have to spend so much effort learning it. Maybe after the revolution we will, like how the Bolsheviks abolished some letters of the Russian alphabet to make it easier to learn to read.

[Janus]

I think that at the worst, there may be small shifts in the literacy percentage but I doubt that literacy itself will be a class privilege. But as material conditions do deteriorate, higher education will probably be an inconceivable goal for many in the future.

[Blue Collar Bohemian]

Anyone else check that article date?

ITZ A MESSAGGEE FROM TEH FUTURE!!!