Question for you Mike:  What was the percentages say in the 20's, 40's, 60's, 80's?

Also, do the numbers take into account ESL?

 It's not the history that bothers me but the now... and I'm assuming literacy means in either official language, not both.  I can't help seeing serious lieteracy problems as a form of disenfranchisement and deprivation of opportunity. Schooling's compulsory for long enough, I would have thought, to impart functional literacy and numeracy skills.

mike , i'm just wondering if there is a set portion of the population which for whatever reason will not learn to read --- or we continue to miss.

It is shocking to see the stats - you're quite right.  And difficult to understand, in some ways. 

There are many folks with some levels of cognitive impairment who can read the words when asked to do so, but are unable to effectively retain & interpret the information they read in order to act on it effectively.   This sometimes is called 'functional literacy'.

It's not just immigrants or ESL folks with difficulties, although for some of them English literacy is a big challenge.  Some come from places with no formal schooling, no real concept of alphabet, word formation, numeracy, etc.   They develop many inventive ways to compensate, but these are not foolproof.  Lack of literacy presents a huge barrier in places of employment ... reading safety warnings, reading crucial checklists, accepting promotions, etc. 

It can be a huge problem for people in terms of healthcare (then called 'health literacy') - think about reading prescription instructions for your sick child or yourself, learning to manage diabetes, etc. etc. - much information is provided in written form.  Sometimes the language is presented at too high a level, or in unfamiliar terms (what the heck does 'passing stool' mean? imagine the possibilities!)  but sometimes there's also a problem with order of presentation of information.  People may read only one sentence at a time, not a whole paragraph, before taking action.  Being able to access information & act on it to make decisions about basic health is crucial - and lacking in a very high percentage of Canadians.   Who then often get labelled as 'non-compliant' or 'unmotivated' patients by a system that does not look beyond for answers.

Disenfranchised ... for sure.

35 kids in a class, 10 of them are struggling, the teacher has easy tools to teach 25, no time or wonderful ideas for the other 10.  No time, no energy, no support for reaching those other 10.

15 classes per school, hundreds of schools, 10 provinces (plus territories!)... very sad.

My daughter can read, but her math is lousy.  Now, there's another topic- who has adequate math skills to buy groceries and get their bills paid?

to build on birthstone's points, you have a class of kids who may or may not be payinig the slightest attention.I don't think people realize how much schools have changed in that respect. The kids then go home to watch TV. They will grow up to spend much of their time plugged into an I pod. For several generations, now, children have been growing up in an increasingly passive world.

To learn to read, you have to read.

You can see one result in the slow death of newspapers. Even the New York Times is in danger of going under.

And, yes, it is a serious threat to democracy. TV is less learning than it is temporary sensations. It's just  pictures. You need words to reason.

graeme

if you have to read to learn to read, do you have to do math to learn math... suddenly I'm not so interested in learning math lol

My son's last assembly at his school had all the grade 5s (2 classes) talking about why they were happy to be Canadian.  Most of them are 1st generation immigrants.

The white kids talked about safety and going out to play without worrying and about good food.

The immigrant kids spoke proudly "My parents are from Somalia, and I am Canadian.  I am proud to be in Canada because even though i'm a girl, I can go to school and learn anything I want to.  I'm proud to be in Canada, because when I grow up, I can do any job I want to even though I'm a girl.  It is safe here."

Anyway, the ESL numbers might affect the literacy count.  In fact, here in Ontario with our Mike Harris provincial literacy tests, the ability to pass was tricky for anyone.  Now, I'm pretty good with my English.  But that's it.  Those recently arrived kids are darn good at their first language, and by my standards, remarkably good at English, even if they don't know what a participle is.

i wonder about those reading tests. I (barely) know what nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs are. Beyond that, I'm lost. I don't know what a participle is or a gerund. That did not prevent me from reading The Tempest when I was elevem (and with great enjoyment). And it has not barred me from making some pretty good money as a professional writer. You learn to read and write by reading and writing - not by memorizing definitions.

It's certainly true that immigrant kids are often more appreciative of Canada than Canadian born ones. And that's understandable. They have the contrast to put them in touch with reality.

I went to schools with a high proportion of immigrant kids. I thoroughly recommend the experience. The sense of difference is stimulating - much better than my present location in New Brunswick where everybody is like everybody else and has been here for a couple of centuries

graeme

MikeP, a pleasure to see you again.

I have no answers, many suspicions, to your queries. 

I think one answer lies in the space between then and now, when reading for pleasure became an idle pass time, when only facts became treasured and the capacity to discover truth in fiction deemed irrelevant.

LB

In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.    

Mortimer Adler

Muskoka highlights something much on my mind recently. I have returned to reading Evelyn Waugh's Put Out More Flags, a novel peopled by pretty useless upper class brits of the 1930s and early war period. Now, I last read that book when I was fifteen or sixteen, a montreal working class boy in a largely french district,  going to a school heavily immigrant and also with  a marked Jewish  presence that still had strong links to the communist party. Curiously, I have a feeling that Waugh's useless upper class brits are more real to me and more reminiscent of my childhood than all the rest.

graeme