the curse is lifted! you are no a beast no more! congratulations! but you’ll never forget the way they looked at you, will you.
i think this a lot of true crimes where they publicly drag the wrong person for months, of internet rumors that turn out to be false but lose people jobs and relationships, of stigmatized illnesses and deformities that achieve a cure, of rags-to-riches, of “ugly ducklings” and hard-earned weight loss. some people never forget how you looked at them
forgive yourself for things you did when you didn’t know better, for things you think you could have controlled but realistically couldn’t, for things you can’t take back. let yourself heal without reopening the wounds to punish yourself every time you’re reminded of your regret.
do you have any ideas about why so many students are struggling with literacy now? I know that illiteracy and reading comprehension have been issues for years and most americans read at like a 5th grade reading level but I’m curious why it seems to be worse now (pandemic? no child left behind?)
It is everything. There’s not one answer. I could talk about this forever so instead I set a five minute timer on my phone and wrote a list of as many of the many things that are causing this on a systemic level that I could think of:
It’s parents not reading with their kids (a privilege, but some parents have that privilege to be able to do this and don’t.)
It’s youtube from birth and never being bored.
It’s phasing out phonics for sight words (memorizing without understanding sounds or meaning) in elementary schools in the early aughts.
It’s defunding public libraries that do all the community and youth outreach.
It’s NCLB and mandating standardized tests which center reading short passages as opposed to longform texts so students don’t build up the endurance or comprehension skills.
It’s NCLB preventing schools from holding students back if they lack the literacy skills to move onto the next grade because they can’t be left behind so they’re passed on.
It’s the chronic underfunding of ESL and Special Ed programs for students who need extra literacy support.
It’s the cultural devaluing of the humanities in favor of stem and business because those make more money which leads to a lot of students to completely disregard reading and writing.
It’s the learning loss from covid.
It’s covid trauma manifesting in a lot of students as learned helplessness, or an inability to “figure things out” or push through adversity to complete challenging tasks independently, especially reading difficult texts.
It’s covid normalizing cheating and copying.
It’s increasing phone use.
It’s damage to attention span exacerbated by increased phone use that leaves you without an ability to sit and be bored ever without 2-3 forms of constant stimulation.
It’s shortform video becoming the predominant form of social media content as opposed to anything text-based.
It’s starting to also be generative AI.
It’s the book bans.
what did I miss.
Cannot believe I forgot to also blame charter schools, voucher programs, and the conservative push to lower the teenage working age and get poor kids tracked out of college prep and into vocational training for this. i have let everyone down
EVERY WORD HERE 👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼 IS TRUE. YOU ARE THAT FROG.
I too have no space to worry about USA, already very worried about Poland and Ecuador, thank goodness Canada is still somehow holding up, but I’m horrified how far you let it go. FIX IT NOW or you’ll be sorry - truer words were never spoken.
Beware of requests for compromise when you are asking for justice and the other side is asking for consent to continue.
Yes, yes, THIS.
My grandmother has drawn similar comparisons between what is going on in America now and what she saw as the Nazis rose to power way back in the late 1930s.
