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Why? The US literacy rate in the 1940s was 97.1%, and the US military had special programs to teach the illiterate to read. During WW2, 95% of illiterate recr
by djrogers 5y ago
Why? The US literacy rate in the 1940s was 97.1%, and the US military had special programs to teach the illiterate to read. During WW2, 95% of illiterate recruits achieved minimum literacy within two months through the special training units developed for that purpose.
I know it’s easy for some people to think of a trigger puller as a dumb grunt - even more so one who served 80 years ago, but it’s not accurate or fair.
[0] https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp
[1] https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/s/soldiers_lit.htm https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/s/soldiers_lit.htm
- rsynnott 5y agoI didn’t mean it as a value judgement; it’s clearly written to be very comprehensible. That’s a good thing!
- sangnoir 5y agoLiteracy at what level? From your first source: "In 1940, more than half of the U.S. population had completed no more than an eighth grade education." The manual had to be written at 8th grade level (at most) in order to be easily understood by more than 50% of the army.