More (not so) fun facts:
54% of American adults read below a 6th grade level.
21% read below a 5th grade level, which is considered functionally illiterate.
High immigration numbers don't fully explain it either, as first gen immigrants only make up about 1/3 of those with low literacy.
That's exactly what you and pretty much everyone in Northern Amerika and Europe did in school. Training your reading and writing skills, increasing your vocabulary, practicing reading comprehension...
Sure there are some that have it easier than others, but a 6th grade reading level is the equivalent of getting winded after a 100m stroll on even ground. At that point its detrimental to your own wellbeeing and day to day life. (The few percent that have an actual disability are excluded here)
American schools, especially poor ones, don't do this. Rich ones, do.
I wrote at about a 7/8th grade level, and that was considered genius for my high school. When I went to college I had to re-learn how to read and write, because it never was taught to me beyond an 8th grade level. My A+ in high school translated to about a C- in college.
I took AP English classes... it didn't matter. the standards at my high school were extremely low, because it was poor. And mine wasn't even THAT bad. The parents are often even stupider than the kids, but the 'floor' of education in the USA is extremely low due to poverty and anti-education culture that is the default outside of a handful of elite and wealthy zip codes.
Further, my family and the culture of my community... punished me for my academic 'success'. The teachers, students, and my own family members, HATED me for not being as stupid and dumb as they were and not actively embracing it. It was look down on, shamed, and resented.
Anyway, the rich and the poor in the USA are living in totally different moral, educational, and financial universes. For rich people, reading at 8th grade is 'a failure' for poor people, it makes you an 'egghead' that they hate.
That's obviously a disservice to students in disadvantaged backgrounds, so why are you trying to argue against me when I'm saying we shouldn't lower the floor further just to permit the education system to continue failing young people while fixing their metrics to look more successful?
because you can't force people to be something they can't or dont' want to be.
The education system cannot rescue people from themselves. You can't rise them up from the top down.
They have to want to improve themselves.
That's something I'd expect to hear in defense of someone who doesn't want to choose a STEM/medicine/business career path, not in defense of not being able to read and understand a NEWSPAPER.
the newspaper doesn't benefit most people. it doesn't report the drama between their friends and family and neighbors.
Okay, well if they can't or don't want to be literate then college isn't the place for them. I don't know what's so hard about that for you to grasp.
You're basically saying that the track team should let anybody join, even if they can't walk a mile let alone run one in 6 minutes.
Having standards is not discrimination.