Hi G
I was the youngest of three so had all the reading matter of my two elder siblings to read as well
I met a guy recently mid 30s who admitted after I starting talking about learning from books who confessed that he could not read, not dyslectic
He had gone all the way though school (and he certainly wasn't stupid) but had just never had the little extra care that was needed to actually understand what he read, also private learning he just could not afford
I put him in touch with our Council who like most Councils run all sorts of programs where he could get help cheaply. But how many teachers had he had during his schooling who just lowered the bar so that he passed each year ??
To me reading is a bit like breathing, you have to do it to live
I remember reading a novel about thirty years ago where on the first few pages a person walks down a path to a little English beach and the sandy bay, and that little bay ringed by cliffs is still such a vivid picture in my mind that I can still visualize it now years later, entirely due to the descriptive power of the authors words
So I get annoyed and saddened that so many people will never have that experience and their lives will be diminished because of that loss
A loss which is 100% due to bureaucrats, politicians, principals and teachers who will not restore our education system to an acceptable level
And naturally massive importation of migrants has also caused the system to crash
