This Was Done Intentionally

5 thoughts on “This Was Done Intentionally”

1. Given the books that most public school systems assign for reading, these statistics are no surprise. Even back in the Dark Ages when I was in school, the books were boring and tedious. The science fiction books I read on my own were more fun to read, and often examined the human condition with as much depth and far more cultural relevance than “The Scarlet Letter.” (The teacher once asked why Hawthorne wrote the book. My reply of “to get money” was not the answer she wanted.) In later grades, Shakespeare’s plays are great, but there was seldom enough explanation of the differences in language and culture to make them more than an exercise in divination of what the teacher wanted to hear back. That makes reading “not fun.” No wonder so many people don’t want to read.

   Corollary: Since giving an unapproved answer is not rewarded, or even discussed in most classrooms, the seeming goal of public schools is to also make thinking “not fun.” It’s discouraging when one realizes that’s a feature, not a bug. See the writings of John Taylor Gatto.

2. One of the “problems” is that the book publishing industry is dominated by women and in a few left wing dominated centres (New York in particular). If the publishing industry is only going to publish books that appeal to a very limited left wing, right on subset of women then reading for pleasure will decline.

   http://www.danielgreenfield.org/2025/01/the-disappearance-of-male-authors.html

   The industry is extremely risk averse so they stick with what they know and is likely to sell. They won’t accept stuff from an unknown author and even well established authors with a solid sales record behind them are often declined. Look at Terry Pratchett – extremely popular but then examine who has published his books. The number of publishers is puzzling unless you are aware of the fickle nature of the industry. A fiction book that would appeal to men will fail at the first hurdle and only those that appeal to the women will get published. Hence the lack of men buying the books. Why would men buy Mills and Boone/Catherine Cookson type novels when they have zero appeal? I personally know Robert Lyman, an ex-British Army officer that is a serious historian and who has published quite a few books:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lyman

   https://robertlyman.com/

   Even he has problems getting his works accepted by publishers and they are specialist Military subject matter publishers. I also note that if you look at the Youtube channel Forgotten Weapons, the guy that produces the videos has had to start up his own publishing house to get books on firearms published. They are scholarly works and not for the casual reader.

   All that, of course, does not dismiss the deliberate and malicious sabotaging of the schools and teaching of basic skills, including reading by the teaching profession and the abandonment of parents to the school system in the education of their children.

   My parents and my grandmother bought me children’s comics from a very early age and read then to me and taught me to read before I went to school and afterwards continued to buy (or allow me to choose) more advanced reading material that captured my interest including “war” type magazines (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commando_(comics) https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=commando+war+stories&iax=images&ia=images) and copies of that format by other publishers. Then, just like Chris C, I discovered Sci Fi.

   Nowadays, I buy very few books and then of a highly specialised nature but second hand bookshops are a different matter. It is like leaving a rabbit in charge of a field of lettuce and I’ll happily browse for hours and spend my money there.

   So unless and until books are published that appeal to the majority and capture their interest and are made available through schools, the downward trend will continue. But my belief is that this is all part of the grand strategy.

3. I teach at a state stem university and most of the students don’t read books – at most they might read online books but it is just not of interest to them. Part of it I think is yes due to the material they are required to read. There is nothing that would interest boys and even little that seems to interest girls. But, more than that few parents seem to be interested in reading or at least if they are passing it on to their children. The other thing is even libraries seem to push audio books (that can be down loaded) vs ones to actually read. Maybe that is a factor, I have no idea though.

4. They can’t get rid of the Department of Education quick enough fo many of us.
   I wonder what those numbers would have been in 1977.

5. I think we have a long way down still to go before the education system bottoms out & starts recovering. Losing the Fed-level straight jacket will help, but until some state or other starts doing it correctly (and is seen to be doing so) the fuckery will continue.

   I’ve posted here and elsewhere my local story, that teachers in most Texas school districts are not allowed to fail more than a bare minimum number of students each year, under threat of not having their contracts renewed. My wife teaches around 120 kids each year in HS history – no advanced placement, no dual credit – and CANNOT fail more than 4-5 kids out of that 120. Every year, she has a couple of kids that cannot read or write enough to turn in assignments, several who don’t show up for class more than a few times, and MANY that should get Fs for the year. The few kids who want to learn keep her on board & trying.

   I think there’s only one solution… take off, and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.