I live in D.C…..and I can read
I like to read. A lot. Having the ability to read is one of my most favorite skills (along with being an extremely fast runner). Apparently, knowing how to read is a skill that a disturbingly large amount of my fellow D.C. residents don't have :
About one-third of the people living in the national's capital are functionally illiterate, compared with about one-fifth nationally, according to a report on the District of Columbia.
Ignoring the irony of a typo appearing in the first sentence of an article about illiteracy, this is not good people. I'm not sure exactly how one solves this problem but Mayor Fenty should put some political capital behind solving this, headlines about D.C. not being able to read are, at the very least, bad PR.
This study is pretty disingenuous. Yes, DC has a high rate of illiterate residents, but as the story points out over 100,000 of the capital’s illiterate are new immigrants from the Ethiopian and Hispanic communities. Give them some time to learn English.
Meanwhile, we should be funding adult education programs (not to mention fund DC’s public school program) to help teach our immigrants (and children) how to read and become productive members of society.
Nonetheless, Jake, I really like your blog!