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Why should reading the Iliad be our standard for literacy? Our standard should be can they apply for jobs, understand bills, understand basic contracts for hous
by ck425 5y ago
Why should reading the Iliad be our standard for literacy? Our standard should be can they apply for jobs, understand bills, understand basic contracts for housing and jobs, read food and drug packaging etc. Those are the things that allow people to successfully navigate modern life.
- ceilingcorner 5y agoIf the goal is just to pump out functional proles, then sure, we only need the absolute basics. If the goal is to provide meaning and purpose to life, to build creative thinkers capable of pushing humanity forward, then reading the high points of human civilization is probably important.
- ck425 5y agoI don't disagree that they're important but they're clearly of secondary importance to the literacy skills that allow people to function in society. We don't need just the absolute basics but we definitely need the absolute basics first. And atm it seems like we're putting a large emphasis on the skills you're promoting but largely failing on the basics. This exacerbated due to many people who (understandable) struggle with the 'high points of society' thinking that they're stupid and thus dismissing their own abilities before they master the basics.
- jimnotgym 5y agoAre you suggesting that this is what John Lewis is looking for, someone who read the classics? It may be true, but that is not what I understood from the article.