Illiterate refers to both being able to read basic words all the way up to reading comprehenson. Equally possible he simply cannot understand what he reads and is anti-intellectual as that seems to be on the rise in the US.
As a victim of the US public School system, every class had one or more kids that simply couldn’t read aloud in class for one reason or another. The teachers learned to not call on them in the future to keep things moving.
Some of them got moved to special education classes over the years, but in my experience they were just free periods to keep them from slowing the other kids down.
It’s sad, I knew a guy that was smart as a whip, but we went to a restaurant he wasn’t used to and he sheepishly asked me what was on the menu since there weren’t any pictures.
It’s called functional literacy, which is what’s being talked to here. Also, your anecdote fails to address other possibilities. I have a friend that, under stress of a new location, may lose the ability to read menus, and their literacy matches other academics in their field. I am a reader that cannot read aloud because that is an entirely different skill than reading.
Illiterate refers to both being able to read basic words all the way up to reading comprehenson. Equally possible he simply cannot understand what he reads and is anti-intellectual as that seems to be on the rise in the US.
As a victim of the US public School system, every class had one or more kids that simply couldn’t read aloud in class for one reason or another. The teachers learned to not call on them in the future to keep things moving.
Some of them got moved to special education classes over the years, but in my experience they were just free periods to keep them from slowing the other kids down.
It’s sad, I knew a guy that was smart as a whip, but we went to a restaurant he wasn’t used to and he sheepishly asked me what was on the menu since there weren’t any pictures.
It’s called functional literacy, which is what’s being talked to here. Also, your anecdote fails to address other possibilities. I have a friend that, under stress of a new location, may lose the ability to read menus, and their literacy matches other academics in their field. I am a reader that cannot read aloud because that is an entirely different skill than reading.