Almost half of Detroit citizens are functionally illiterate

[Mike_Yates]

http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2011/05/report_47_perce.php

Unbelievable! How could this have happened?

I thought Detroit schools were the best in the nation!

 

[GiaCat]

"functionally illiterate."

Well, at least they are functional.

 

[warrior queen]

It's even more shocking when you consider that almost all functionally illiterate people are also unable to do simple math.
23% of school leavers in Oz cannot read or write properly, nor can they do simple addition.
And these are teens who finish school!

 

[Songcatcher]

http://rense.com/1.imagesH/zionolymp_dees.jpg

They cannot read this?

 

[theseidlehands]

What a sad state of affairs. Schools want to stop teaching handwriting, liberal arts are being defunded, and tests that do not judge whether a person can think and read comprehensively. Lack of desire to learn from students and later as adults is, I believe, the major problem with our country. People are so complacent about their place in life.

 

[The_Trouvere]

I doubt this is due to the failure of the Detroit public school system, but to the failure of students in the Detroit public school system. Some students will not or cannot learn.

 

[Mike_Yates]

It's even more shocking when you consider that almost all functionally illiterate people are also unable to do simple math.
23% of school leavers in Oz cannot read or write properly, nor can they do simple addition.
And these are teens who finish school!

How can you possibly graduate high school if you can't even read or write, or do simple addition?

Why it is that people in other countries (especially in Asia and the middle-east) so far exceed the academic performance of those in the United States?

Today's K1-12 youth care more about pop-culture, television, movies, drugs, decadent lifestyles, and so on, than their schoolwork or their futures.

There are countless college students whom can barely even read!

 

[busybody..]

I doubt this is due to the failure of the Detroit public school system, but to the failure of students in the Detroit public school system. Some students will not or cannot learn.

who are thos stew dents?

 

[MeeMie]

Shades of the movie Idiocracy going on there

 

[Powertone]

who are thos stew dents?

the ones being raised by their mama in a single parent household













somebody call me a racist , QUICK !

 

[oggbashan]

How can you possibly graduate high school if you can't even read or write, or do simple addition?
...

There are countless college students whom can barely even read!

In many countries, including England, you do not 'graduate' from high school - you take examinations and even if you fail them all you will still leave school.

English employers and Universities have been complaining for years that 16/18 year-olds leave school without a minimum standard in English and Mathematics even though the minimum has been repeatedly lowered.

A small part of the problem is that students who used to be taught in special schools for the mentally and/or physically handicapped are now taught in mainstream schools. It is better for the social and intellectual attainments of most of them, but asking some of them to pass an examination is asking for something beyond their best endeavours. If a realistic target is to get a handicapped 16-year-old functioning at the level of an average 5-year-old, how can they pass an exam in English?

Og

 

[KingOrfeo]

I doubt this is due to the failure of the Detroit public school system, but to the failure of students in the Detroit public school system. Some students will not or cannot learn.

Always. But if a disproportionate number of such are found in a given city, that cannot be the students' fault. Something else must be wrong.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Today's K1-12 youth care more about pop-culture, television, movies, drugs, decadent lifestyles, and so on, than their schoolwork or their futures.

That has been the same at least since the 1950s. (And I recall Plato saying something similar, allowing for absence of TV, etc., about the younger generation of his day!)

 

[coastal-boy]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/detroits-unemployment-rat_n_394559.html

Detroit is...well...Detroit. This is not a new problem

 

[sufisaint]

Do you really need to read and write to get a welfare check and vote in those who promise you more...

 

[MeeMie]

Detroit, Michigan, once the epitome of American industrial might, is now filled with slums and empty buildings.

U. S. Government welfare programs created to buy the votes of those who want someone to take care of them contributes to the destruction of Detroit.

Political corruption filled the void once productive society abandoned Detroit.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/jan/detroit-corruption-keeps-piling


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2g_KTiege-I/TZdlzkhfwtI/AAAAAAAAAFE/j3pvvOvTTLw/s1600/Detroit+Slums.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TxTSe7SJnPs/TD20HbGn2xI/AAAAAAAAQxE/W38ishQoJNw/s1600/detroit-house.jpg
http://www.uncoverage.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/detroit_ghetto.jpg
http://angrywhitedude.com/wp-content/uploads2/2010/12/detroit-abandoned-building.jpg
http://www.shortfatguy.com/images/uploads/ghetto3fi.jpg
http://www.uncoverage.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Detroit-ghetto.jpg
http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/
http://detroitiscrap.com/detroit-picture-gallery

 

[Mike_Yates]

Detroit, Michigan, once the epitome of American industrial might, is now filled with slums and empty buildings.

U. S. Government welfare programs created to buy the votes of those who want someone to take care of them contributes to the destruction of Detroit.

Political corruption filled the void once productive society abandoned Detroit.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/jan/detroit-corruption-keeps-piling


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2g_KTiege-I/TZdlzkhfwtI/AAAAAAAAAFE/j3pvvOvTTLw/s1600/Detroit+Slums.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TxTSe7SJnPs/TD20HbGn2xI/AAAAAAAAQxE/W38ishQoJNw/s1600/detroit-house.jpg
http://www.uncoverage.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/detroit_ghetto.jpg
http://angrywhitedude.com/wp-content/uploads2/2010/12/detroit-abandoned-building.jpg
http://www.shortfatguy.com/images/uploads/ghetto3fi.jpg
http://www.uncoverage.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Detroit-ghetto.jpg
http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/
http://detroitiscrap.com/detroit-picture-gallery

You are ABSOLUTELY 100% right!

Here are just some of the things which led to the destruction of Detroit.

*Political corruption
*The welfare or "nanny" state
*Deeply corrupt, Hoffa-era labor unions
*Organized crime
*Corrupt state government
*CIA-sponsored introduction of drugs into the city during the 60's and 70's.
*Intentional miseducation of Detroit children.

All of these things created the perfect formula for what Detroit is today, a post-apocalyptic wasteland full of slums and abandoned buildings. I believe this was done intentionally by corrupt elements of the federal government to create an entire class of people who will vote for a particular political party.

I mean, how could the democrats win elections without the existence of the nanny-state?

The worst factor which led to the destruction of a once great city is the millions of Detroiters on welfare, because they refuse to work and want the government to take care of them generation after generation.

Today, I believe the total population of Detroit is below 1,000,000. Everyone is leaving. And within about a decade or so, it will literally be a ghost town left to rot for all eternity.

I was born and raised in metropolitan Detroit. I remember very clearly the abandoned buildings and post-apocalyptic hellscapes. I moved to Arizona at 14 years old after my parents divorced and my mother remarried. I have been living in Phoenix for 9 years.

The federal government gives Detroit millions or sometimes even billions of dollars to help with economic development. But it gets pocketed amongst corrupt officials in the city and state government.

 

[oggbashan]

Detroit, Michigan, once the epitome of American industrial might, is now filled with slums and empty buildings...

"Made in Detroit" used to be a mark of excellence and durability known throughout the world, and in many parts of the world Detroit-made machinery is still used. Detroit-made armaments helped liberate Europe.

Perhaps the industries failed to adapt to produce items that people were willing to buy at the price Detroit sold them for?

In the UK we have had our Detroits on a smaller scale where heavy industries became uncompetitive in world markets and died out. We produced British motorcycles to old fashioned designs long after the Japanese had shown a better way. The motorcycle industry and its owners failed to adapt, failed to invest, ignored the warnings.

Some towns that relied on heavy industry have adapted and thrived with newer industries; some haven't had the opportunities and are still needing support; none have totally lost hope as similar towns did in the 1930s.

Will there ever again be the need for large numbers of unskilled or semi-skilled workers that were employed in Detroit? Or have we made work so skilled that the average Detroit worker of the 20s, 30s, 40s or 50s could never do it?

The problem is massive but the solution doesn't come from blaming "the g'vmt".

Og

 

[Mike_Yates]

Factories and companies had to pay unionized employees so much money, that they often went out of business and had to close down. During the 1980's, some assembly line workers working-double shifts were making over $100K per year, plus benefits and the best health insurance possible. And most of them didn't even have a GED!

When you have a few hundred illiterate and uneducated blue-collar workers demanding those same wages and benefits, and you cannot legally deny it to them because of pervasive political corruption, your business is pretty much doomed.

This is what happened to countless factories in Detroit. More and more businesses disappeared, unemployment skyrocketed, crime went up, politics and politicians became more corrupt, the welfare state exploded, lazy welfare recipients refused to contribute to the economy, the rest was history.

 

[Loring2]

http://rense.com/1.imagesH/zionolymp_dees.jpg

They cannot read this?

Neither can I Songcatcher, tell me what it says.

 

[Mike_Yates]

Blax also contributed much to the downfall of Detroit.

 

[thør]

Blax also contributed much to the downfall of Detroit.

Detroit went to shit starting in 1968.

 

[Joeybagadonuts]

Passing along illiterate dummies is ok if the are highly skilled athletes who can compete in the NFL or NBA but lets at least hold the rest to a hire standard.

 

[shoulderblade]

Detroit went to shit starting in 1968.

A side effect of the 68 Democratic convention?

 

[warrior queen]

Passing along illiterate dummies is ok if the are highly skilled athletes who can compete in the NFL or NBA but lets at least hold the rest to a higher standard.

fixed.
oops