Saturday 8 July 2017

the Brain drain

The league of Common sense has been living on Facebook for the last few years. But when there is something to say, it has come back to base.

I meet many people in the course of my work. And as an author I ask them one simple question.
Do you read?
the answer is 6 out of 10 NO.

No time is the one that crops up quite often, but the biggest factor and answer is that I can't read.
This is not a joke. The people I meet are from all walks of life, various socio-econonic groups and ages and yet Australian education has let them down. Or they have failed to grasp the basics that the education has offered them.
 Although I have encountered some in the older demographic that can't read,
it is always said with a longing of what might have been. The younger generation say it with a laugh and a giggle.
What is missing? What has happened to the education system that we are producing illiterate people who don't seem to care that they go through life without the knowledge to read and process what they read, for comprehension is part and parcel of that knowledge.

I am surprised at the number of people that don't, can't, read. I see it and hear it all the time. And there is not one ounce of shame attached to the pronouncement. The world revolved around reading, texting, tweeting, Facebooking. How can one navigate life without the basic knowledge. It is through pictures. U tube, snapchat, instagram, etc. Now the manufacturers have put out instructions without words...just pictures in simple format for the new generation.

.Perhaps it is the 'everyone's a winner' school programme. You get a star for just showing up.
I know my own grandchildren get a ribbon for participation in sports day. Where is the striving to be first when you know you will get a reward for eating your lunch.

The illiterate generation is spreading to their offspring. Fidget spinners hold more of the allure than a book. How can it be that kids will spin a toy than try to achieve something. ..anything. Of course the latest fad has always been available. We had click clack balls, but there was a level of skill involved in them, as with yo-yos, kites, knucklebones, marbles etc. Where is the problem solving, the skill involved with a fidget spinner.
Is this level of unintelligent behaviour a ploy to keep the population happy and ignorant.
Where is the thought process. Where is the passion, the life, the seeking of knowledge?

Reading is something that sets us apart. It gives us ideas, spreads information and makes us question. Without the basics, the population can and will be spoon fed any idea and it will be accepted as a truth. Life's subtleties will be hidden from view.
The world is flat and we will all fall off if something isn't done to fix the problem.








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