Literacy (Semi-Literacy)

George Steiner describes the result of modern mass education as “semi-literacy.” The ability to read is widespread, but the inability to read any but the shallowest texts is equally widespread. He cites recent estimates that put the literacy of more than half the population of United States at the level of twelve-year-olds. Steiner concludes: “Such semi- or sub-literacy is not being eradicated by mass-schooling: it is being made politically and psychologically acceptable.”

(Os Guinness, Fit Bodies Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do About It, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1994, 72)