Recently, I had a concerning, yet intriguing conversation with a teacher about how kids can’t read. Not just younger kids, but teenagers are struggling with reading, writing, and comprehension. However, this issue goes beyond this generation of students to adults as well. The United States is suffering from a literacy crisis. 79% of adults are literate in the United States; however, 54% of adults have a literacy rate below a 6th grade reading level. Literacy is essential to success in contemporary society and a backbone to anyone’s chosen career. Illiteracy can serve as a barrier to low skilled jobs as well. As noted, students are also not exempt from these concerns. In 2023, a study showed that only 43% of 4th graders were reading at or above grade level. However, who is to blame? Is it actually that da*n phone? The video games? The TV that’s rotting our brains?Â
In short, no. This literacy crisis is fueled by systemic barriers and faults in education. Partnered with generational cycles, the blame cannot be cast so superficially. Poverty, limited access to adult education programs, and learning disabilities are all reasons for adult illiteracy. Poverty also directly impacts children’s literacy rates. Reading to children is vital to development, and parents’ literacy levels directly impact their children. 80% of children living in economically disadvantaged communities lose reading skills over the summer because of a lack of resources. Combined with ineffective teaching methods and a focus on just moving students through grades as opposed to knowledge retention, students are struggling with literacy, which will continue to have generational consequences. In actuality, it is communities of color and low income that are the most affected. Generational cycles of illiteracy are cultivated, which will continue to serve as facets of oppression for these communities.Â
That is not to say that modern technology hasn’t had an impact on literacy. Americans in general are reading less, and digital media cannot be exempt as a reason. Digital media is easy to consume and easily accessible in lieu of other barriers, such as economic insecurity and limited leisure time. However, casting the blame onto the emergence of technology is shortsighted. It continues to neglect the structural flaws we have in education and casts blame on the victims of said system. Even before the phone, systemic classism and racism were intertwined into the education system. The da*n phone is simply a redirection away from the true cause of the literacy crisis in the United States: systemic cycles of oppression and neglect. Â