From https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/14phpbq/how_is_it_possible_that_roughly_50_of_americans/

Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.

  • czardestructo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Everyone is very focused on recent history. What about the huge amounts of aging immigrants in the USA that migrated here for a better life in the 50s-70s from poor countries and no education? They just worked their ass off and reading wasn’t a priority. My father was a poor shepard, no education and illiterate but he hustled and retired early and put me through college to be an engineer. It seems improbable but it is possible for someone to be illiterate and wildly successful and contribute a lot to society and culture.

    • Tsrich92@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s still a pretty small percentage overall, and I bet they drove up overall numbers as immigrants often stress education. My wife’s family are immigrants from the 70s and all the kids and grandkids have at least college degrees and a majority have masters degreea

    • techie@techy.news
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      1 year ago

      I think the one thing you hit on is that your family valued education. They knew that in order for you to have a better life than the one they had, the one tool they could give you to be successful in life is education. They worked hard to give you this by making sure you had your basic needs met so that you could focus on learning.

    • Tsrich92@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s still a pretty small percentage overall, and I bet they drove up overall numbers as immigrants often stress education. My wife’s family are immigrants from the 70s and all the kids and grandkids have at least college degrees and a majority have masters degreea

    • Tsrich92@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s still a pretty small percentage overall, and I bet they drove up overall numbers as immigrants often stress education. My wife’s family are immigrants from the 70s and all the kids and grandkids have at least college degrees and a majority have masters degreea

    • Tsrich92@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s still a pretty small percentage overall, and I bet they drove up overall numbers as immigrants often stress education. My wife’s family are immigrants from the 70s and all the kids and grandkids have at least college degrees and a majority have masters degreea

    • Tsrich92@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s still a pretty small percentage overall, and I bet they drove up overall numbers as immigrants often stress education. My wife’s family are immigrants from the 70s and all the kids and grandkids have at least college degrees and a majority have masters degreea