Re: [Gnu-arch-users] OT: trained dependency

[Zenaan Harkness]

On Thu, 2004-11-04 at 04:35, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> >>>>> "Talli" == Talli Somekh <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>     Talli> i think that would probably be an impossible number
> 
> I think all the numbers given by Zenaan are impossible.  The US has
> historically kept rather poor statistics.  Compared to the Chinese and

The high literacy of the US free population is, AIUI based on an
observation of (at least one) particular book that was sold, which sold
about as many copies as there were free men and women (higher than one
per family). This book, from a literacy point of view, is very
"difficult going".

The reduction and decline in literacy rates is based on 20thC US army
literacy tests at recruit inductions for WWI, WWII and Vietnam. The
reduction in literacy is ongoing, and literacy going into WWI was 92%+
(whites) and (I think - perhaps this is where the 80% stat came from -
that would actually make sense) 80% for blacks.

Again, the specifics have proven to (notably :) be relieved of my feeble
mind and so if you want something clearer, go read Gatto.

Finally, there's another interesting stat - there's some test in the US
for I think University-entrants where the scores go up to 800 or 1000 or
something. Anyway, over the last (X =~ 10 ?) decades the _number_ (not
the percentage) of people scoring above some really high figure (like
600 or something, don't remember sorry) has declined (that number being
in the order of 2,500 students nationwide). That was a very surprising
thing given the population increase over time.

Then various numbers I've been reading in this regard _are_ amazing and
unexpected, (even when the dates are corrected :), which is the only
reason I posted in the first place.

And here's the website for Gatto's works:
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/

Quote from that page: "Perhaps the greatest of school's illusions is
that the institution was launched by a group of kindly men and women who
wanted to help the children of ordinary families—to level the playing
field, so to speak."

cheers
zen