"Gen Z/Alpha can't read" *a rant*

There were those of us who saw this coming a long time ago, even before there were iPads, and we were told we were overreacting, and it's not a big deal, kids today are so much smarter than previous generations that only had books and pencils and paper to work with, and besides, this is the future! This is the way the world is now! But all the OTHER kids are doing it so that makes it okay! Nobody NEEDS to do stupid reading or writing anymore, because computers will do it for them. Some of us spoke out years ago about the fact 2/3 of 4th graders couldn't read on grade level, and the response was that that's not true, it's made up, kids are smarter than that. Does a teacher saying it now suddenly make it fact?

This whole thing is just mind blowing to me, as a kid I was not a GOOD reader, I was slow, I had trouble remembering a lot of stuff, especially when school issued 19th century classic literature in 4th-5th-6th grade, but I liked reading, I WANTED to read, we didn't have a whole lot of non-school books to read through past the Little Golden Book stage, and I always wanted to know what was in books, I wanted to go to the library and see what was there, I was curious. But since we didn't have a lot of books, I just reread the same ones over, and over, and over, and over. And for not having a whole lot, what we had sufficed, I had a 2 volume children's dictionary that I found lacking on most of the words I wanted to look up, but it was a starting point, I got a very good overall biological education from the Charlie Brown Encyclopedia body health book. Sadly, that, which I read at 7-8 years old, would now be beyond the comprehension skills of many teenagers.

I know the double edge of this is these people who are basically helpless, are not aware they're helpless, or don't care, helpless is something I felt a lot as a kid because of so many uncertainties, and I was always scared to death I would be found out about all the things I didn't know, or didn't know how to do, so when I got older I made a point to learn as much as I could about as much as I could, and it's still a process, because education is actually never-ending. We always thought once you're 18 and out of high school, bam, no more learning, you've learned everything you need. Then you get there and find out the learning is just beginning, but out of school you can actually learn stuff that makes sense, in ways that make sense.

And of course this comes back to the parents, which is not as easy to blame them for as it seems. First, millions of parents themselves can't read, their parents couldn't read, but they were too ashamed to ever bring this to light and didn't know where to get help for it, so they spent a lifetime just hiding the fact, and that's why many are not involved in their kids' schoolwork and why they never taught their kids to read, and might also explain why many fell for the lie that oh tablets and smartphones will help their kids do better in school, they'll be so much smarter than the kids who don't have them, etc. And then I remember years ago being told by some that parents don't have TIME to teach their kids to read, because they work all day, and they're tired when they get home, and that shouldn't be their responsibility, just wait and let the teachers do it at school, that's their job. And then the other side of that is a common lie that has been regurgitated so many times it's accepted without question, that parents shouldn't be allowed/trusted to teach their kids ANYTHING because they're not certified teachers, so they're too stupid to do it right, they'll just screw their kids up if they even try. Guess what? That includes reading. And a lot of the parents fed this lie are young, first time parents, already scared to death they're doing everything wrong, so it's no wonder they would believe a lie like that. So parents bought the lie. Then the teachers get mad at the parents because they did.

Then of course we come to the oblivious parents who for some reason wanted kids, but didn't want to be parents, and want everyone else to do their job for them. The problem is because illiterate parents tend to hide their secret so well, many times it's hard to tell one of these from the other.

But another fact is there have always been parents who couldn't bother raising their kids, yet in previous times they still tended to turn out better than the ones today. But in the 70s/80s, people paid attention, they knew parents weren't covering everything their kids needed to know, so TV often stepped in to help. Anybody remember the One to Grow on commercials with the TV stars teaching kids not to be greedy or bad sports, don't open the door for strangers, talk to your parents if something's bothering you, etc?

And then anybody remember these?

That last one has always stuck with me. Precedes Hasbro's Family Game  Night, but good luck marketing books the same way. Easy when you just sell 10 million copies of the same 8 games, than actually selecting a collection of family reading books, isn't it? But when was the last time you actually saw those commercials either? And any PSAs or whatever, only advise parents to TALK to their kids, nothing's about parents DOING something with their kids. Oh sure years ago Nick at Nite did the 'have dinner at the table like a family to prevent your kids doing drugs', but what since? Not get the whole FAMILY moving for 60 minutes a day, KIDS, turn off the TV and go out and play, where are the parents? We have no idea. Even this one is going on a decade old.

But Jim Henson, Mr. Rodgers, etc., they had it right, they knew kids were going to learn what they saw, like it or not TV does have influence on kids. And that's why in the 80s they invented Reading Rainbow, I never got into that, Wishbone was my thing,

We were also the generation of The Pagemaster, and Matilda. What do we have today for comparison?

And yeah it's largely just a merchandise thing, but what about when TV shows had whole book series for kids? Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark had a 23 book series, Mystery Files of Shelby Woo had I think 16, Ghostwriter had several books, Wishbone had classic series, 'regular' series, and a mystery series.

And you know what? I've seen the latest rendition of The Hardy Boys that's selling right now.

This to me is the ultimate proof kids today are dumber than ever, that what the teachers said about having to dumb down the material so they understand it, is true. Anybody here ever read the Hardy Boys? I read the first 5 of the original series, and the first couple in the 80s more YA version full of teenage boys dealing with automatic gunfire, explosions, wild car chases, murders, etc.

Further proof how long we've sunk. When my dad was in kindergarten in the 50s his teacher would read the Hardy Boys to the class. Margaret Hamilton would read The Wizard of Oz to her kindergarten class, today that's listed as a 5th grade book. 5th grade I had to read the full version of Lorna Doone. Now I'm remembering not too long ago somebody argued that's not the same thing whatsoever because kindergartners don't READ Hardy Boys or Wizard of Oz, it's read TO them. But clearly today they wouldn't even be able to do that and follow the story either. When I asked why then they don't just read Robinson Crusoe, etc., to kindergartners since they just LISTEN to it, the response was 'because that's boring!' No, because even 50 years ago, kindergartners would not get most of what was going on in a non-condensed version of the story, but they could understand back then what is now considered 5th grade reading material.