RE: Illiteracy in Society: More Than Just a Lack of Schooling

I think this is a very important issue. There was a time when education was about educating character, helping young humans become adult humans - through critical thinking, reading of the classics of the culture, studying history, training in ideas, learning both the humanities and the sciences. The humanities were called that for a reason; they teach people to become humans, and one was called literate not only because one could read but because one was well-read.

But teaching the humanities has largely disappeared so we have a population of people who can read and write - but have never read a book.

I had a friend, a smart guy, who was proud - actually proud - of the fact that he never read anything. I could never understand that, but ultimately the friendship faded because of it. He'd never learned to judge good ideas from bad, reasonable arguments from unreasonable arguments. So though he could read, it did him little good. That is, I think, far too common these days.