Being functionally literate is important for more than just being able to read. It’s the type of literacy that goes hand-in-hand with how you function on the job and day-to-day tasks. Unfortunately, it seems recent trends are showing in uptick in functional illiteracy in the U.S. A Florida teacher who saw the problem firsthand broke revealed the ugly side effect. More importantly, she has an answer for fighting back the problem.
“A lot of people are confused about the literacy crisis because they don’t know what illiteracy actually looks like,” Samiyah Ali states at the start of her TikTok video. She taught elementary schoolers and confirms illiteracy is a growing problem. Samiyah drops some concerning, such as “21% of adults in the U.S. are functionally illiterate. Even more concerning is that 54% of adults in the U.S. read at or below a sixth grade level.” She argues is isn’t just about reading, but understanding the text you read.
Samiyah says that children are being left behind “intellectually” and it’s leading to bigger problems. She said standardized tests over the years have prepped kids on how to answer questions, but never critically examining it. Essentially, children are memorizing, but not understanding. As one commenter put it: “I had a student in the 7th grade, he couldn’t even do sight words, it broke my heart.”
Samiyah’s biggest fear is children missing out on information in other subjects. As she puts it, those children are lacking “basic foundations of reading,” so it bleeds into other aspects of school. And even worse, continue into adulthood, which is also a major concern, especially if those people are politically active. These adults are unable to distinguish between fact and opinion or how you “use those facts to form your own personal opinions,” according to Samiyah.
Unsurprisingly, comments were pretty unanimous. “I remember reading a comment under a TikTok recently that said something along the lines of ‘liberals think they say facts that somehow means they’re right’ and it’s like well… yes, that’s exactly what that means,” said one TikToker. To me, that sounds like someone is sensitive about their intelligence.
“I think also the full focus on stem and none on the arts side is partially to blame. Moving away from phonics was also a major, bad choice.” said one concerned viewer. Creativity really is slept on in education, and I wager it has a lot to do with a lack of respect for the Arts.
The biggest lesson here is to teach your kids not only how to read, but understand the words. and ask questions. Even if makes a mess in the end. More importantly, teach them to love reading and give them room to be creative!
