What is Digg?Sponsored by Guitar Center
When Heavy-handed Hints Fail--Guitar Center Wishlist Posters view!
guitarcenter.com - Cool personalized designs send a friendly reminder that a new Stratocaster would rock, thanks.
166 Comments
- tony4moroney, on 10/10/2007, -8/+11423% of parents can't read at an elementary level?
that's embarassing.. - DeskFlyer, on 10/10/2007, -2/+92But they're really good at making babies.
- TheCatsPants, on 10/10/2007, -0/+53It was a poll from a company selling education resources, including English courses. So maybe the poll was a bit biased?
- davewashere, on 10/10/2007, -0/+37Eye don't see any problem with that
- Drexus, on 10/10/2007, -6/+371 in 5 Americans think the sun goes around the earth. (Not my imagination - pulled from previous story)
- arbulus, on 10/10/2007, -4/+35I'm of the mind that if you cannot comprehend elementary level reading material, then you have no business having children.
- Nougat, on 10/10/2007, -1/+31Aye.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+26illiteracy is a big problem here in the UK. Some of my friends can't even spell simple words like "eye"
- cmiller1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+25*weeps for the future of humanity*
- EmperorAwesome, on 10/10/2007, -0/+21Pigs building houses. Ha! Answer me this: with what thumbs?
- Homunculiheaded, on 10/10/2007, -1/+21illiteracy is a huge, and very often forgotten issue (in both the US and UK). Many people can read, but not read well. I know many non-native english speakers who grew up in the developing world and there simply isn't the education system we have in a lot of these countries, education is not encouraged, and can often get in the way of providing for you family.
But, to be honest, I think these parents deserve A LOT of credit. Reading to your children is one of the best ways to instill good reading habits in them. For you or I this isn't a big deal, but imagine if it was a struggle for you every night, imagine the embarrassment you might feel (along with pride) in knowing that your children will soon be reading better than you. I know many people who if in this situation would rather just ignore it, not deal with the struggle and leave their kids to discover reading on their own (or never). - tehWyman, on 08/19/2009, -6/+231 out of every 6 parents is Chinese.
- barnis, on 10/10/2007, -3/+201 in 10 people called in an unscientific poll of parents in England done by a company with a vested interest in the results can't understand a bedtime story...ummm?
- chicoer2001, on 10/10/2007, -3/+19What are they reading to their kids? War and Peace?
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+17In the UK, 7 out of to 10 parents shouldn't even BE parents.
- lordtyros, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15http://pbfcomics.com/archive/PBF027AD-Billy_the_Bunny.jpg
- jackhole, on 10/10/2007, -1/+14Both are abbreviations of "mathematics," which is both a singular and a plural word, so both are equally "correct." American English favors clipping more than British English, so Americans remove the "s" from the difficult-to-say "ths" cluster.
The s is retained in "mathematics" in American English because it is not difficult to say, and helps differentiate the word from the adjective "mathematic." - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -7/+20No, it's an English language thing which is correct and proper.
- Tyrsson, on 10/10/2007, -1/+14Curious that I'm getting dugg down for pointing out a potential flaw in the research design of such a study. If English is your second language, then it stands to reason that you might have difficulty understanding English literature, even children's literature. If non-native speakers are included in the study, then the numbers may not be as alarming as they seem with regard to their implication for British literacy. I'm reasonably sure the researchers would have addressed this in their experimental design, but the author of this article makes no mention of it. It's sloppy reporting.
- timusca, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12I know its a "study" and all... but come on. I've never met ANYONE that thought the Sun went around the Earth.
- Tyrsson, on 10/10/2007, -7/+18The article fails to mention whether or not the study population included immigrant parents. If it does, then I'm a bit surprised that the percentages are so low.
- OwdenBowden, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11I agree. Just the act of reading to your child helps them to discover reading on their own. The other day I was reading the Penthouse forum to our youngest and within thirty minutes he was out like a light. He just loves those crazy stories.
- apjoseph, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Until two months ago, I lived in the east end of London. This area has the highest number of teenage pregnancy in the world and one of the highest number of places for single parent families. Statistically, 1 in 4 16 year old girls get pregnant. This means that they don’t even get to finish secondary school, as they end up having their children by the time they are 16 or 17. 4 years ago, I taught IT in an inner London school, and in the last year there 2 girls in my class of around 20 quit in their final year because they fell pregnant. The sad truth is, this is not alarming new to me or people who live here.
So, what we see here is very young single parents (as the dad more or less always leave as soon as they find out their girl friend is pregnant), with no education and will probably live on the social security money. I do not want to come across condescending, but this is reality here so I am not surprised that so many people cant even read a book.
What’s worse is (I am 27, with a 3 year old son) we read our son at least 3 stories every night and our friends find that very odd and are surprised at it, as it is not really the norm. Bedtime stories are thing of the past now-a-days, then again so is reading, in this day of TV, drugs and ASBOs. - levitron, on 10/10/2007, -9/+19Shoot, I thought it meant "couldn't" understand. I've got 3 kids under 5, and I tell ya, there's some strange kids' stories out there....
- chris9902, on 10/10/2007, -5/+15don't argue. it's our language and if we want an extra S then everyone else is wrong. Also, put the damn U back in colour you hippy.
- meshman, on 10/10/2007, -3/+12They should look up what most of those fairy tales are about. Jack came tumbling down alright, just his head. You don't want to know what Mary Mary Quite Contrary or Little Miss Muffett was actually about.
- dpknc84, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9This website has a list of pretty much every nursery rhyme you probably heard when you were a child and the history behind the rhyme:
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ - Renton, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10I can understand if they have trouble reading Dr.Seuss or something. Those books just make up words that sound funny.
- itsme7g, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Regardless of if they are understand the words I have to commend anyone who reads to their kids. It is the first and most important step to insuring that those children grow up not only knowing how to read, but also enjoy it.
I am sure there are too many who just wait for school to teach their kids how to learn. - Devrdander, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_Jill_%28song%29
The beheading thing is kind of debunked because there are recorded publishings before Louis XVI, the one about Charles changing the size of Jack(Half Pints) and Gils(Quarter pints) is actually more probable - arbulus, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7I didn't say anything about sterilizaion. I'm talking about choice. They shouldn't CHOOSE to have children.
Having and raising children is not a trivial thing. People want to think that babies are some just simple toy that they can just pick up and put down whenever they like, but it's not so. You have to devote yourself to raising your child. You have to be equipped to handle the challenges that parenthood is going to throw at you. You have to be albe to provide an environment for your child that will allow them to grow up capable and ready for the world. But there are SO many people who cannot do that. There are also so many people who don't WANT to do that, but still have kids anyway because they want to get a bigger tax refund at the end of the year, or because they can't be bothered to take a pill or put on a ***** condom.
If you don't have the mental capacity to handle the responsitbility that parenthood brings, then you have no business having children. - Chuck95, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Why is he being dugg down? It's true... there are some really messed up ones out there. Sometimes it's not a matter of reading ability, it's that some of them just make no sense at all.
- jackhole, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Finnegan's Wake.
- Endemoniada, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Are you referring to the "study" that asked questions even astrophysicists would get confused by?
I'll take every chance I get to laugh at the expense of "dumb americans", but that article was just pathetic. If they'd asked the question "does the sun revolve around the earth", plain and simple, the results would have been very different. Even then, a lot of people wouldn't even hear the question and just answer yes, as if the question had really been reversed. - abid786, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6On the contrary, there are also many non-native English speakers who speak English *better* than some of the natives.
- carlwinslow, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6At least 70% of all people are idiots. What's the point of this study again?
- HUKI365, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Agreed. The reason people think its dodgy now is that people have built a series of euphemisms around the stories.
- Gella321, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6"...A third of parents also admit to difficulties in helping their children with their maths homework." what?
- Trat, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Pfff, give my kid a Nintendo DS...
- thefirstenemy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I'm surprised by the lack of any middle ground between dumbass and genius.
- arbulus, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5ORLY?
- arabidian, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Report it on Ben Goldacre's bad science pages http://www.badscience.net/. He's also writing for Guardian.
- bobbagoose, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4That's not so surprising judging by the glaring spelling errors and appalling grammar I see day after day on Digg.
- mal1964, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4The older parents didn't have google to help them.
- fozzie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Proof of IDIOCRACY!
- oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/10/2007, -6/+10This article is complete Squillysquabish.
- Tyrsson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Thanks for the heads up on the site. This could be useful for a class I will be teaching this fall.
- mahdaeng, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Embarrassing, perhaps, but not very surprising. Just look at the posts on Digg.
- Murdats, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4same here in australia, infact just look at the spelling. how do they not rhyme?
-
Show 51 - 100 of 169 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 