• Redhotkurt@kbin.social
    37·
    1 year ago

    It’s not a question of “Can you read the book?” It is a question of, “Did you extract information from the book? Can you connect the dots asked in the question based on the information that you read?” Lots of people who identify themselves as literate have a lot of difficulty doing these kinds of things.

    I’m really sorry if this comes across as a TL;DR, but there’s a name for that. I’m positive you already know, but for the benefit of those interested, it’s called “functional illiteracy.” And it’s wild, still blows my mind to this day. Like, if you’re functionally illiterate, that doesn’t mean you don’t know how to read…it means you can read but can’t understand language written beyond the basic level. There are a lot of variables involved and I’m oversimplying a lot, but that’s it in a nutshell. It’s fucking terrifying, to be honest, especially because it’s so widespread.

    Read to your kids, folks! And talk to them about it afterwards!

    • paddirn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      1 year ago

      I feel like I encounter this alot at work. Write an email describing the problem, asking for clarification or a decision, and get a response back that seemingly ignores what is being asked with a question that was already answered in the previous email.

      • No1@aussie.zone
        91·
        1 year ago

        And the other classic: Ask 2 questions, eg in an email or even one post here. Clearly marked, with 1. and 2.

        You can only ever expect to get back one answer. Comprehension and attention span of a…

        “SQUIRREL!!”

        • DarthBueller@lemmy.world
          4·
          1 year ago

          To be fair, on here I will sometimes intentionally cherry pick a single asked question out of several asked, because I’m not at work, and nobody is going to question my performance if I don’t answer the question I don’t give a fuck about.

      • rambaroo@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        So many people like this where I have to repeat myself 3 or 4 times before they understand what I said

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
      92·
      1 year ago

      Even more wild that a functional illiterate was elected president of the most powerful country in the world!