I think Paul Thomas is asking the wrong historical question. (Scroll down to see Paul's full Substack post)
The issue is not whether every generation has complained that "kids today can't read." Adults have always complained about the young. Complaints about declining standards, declining morality, declining discipline, and declining literacy can be found throughout recorded history. The existence of the complaint tells us very little.
A reply to Paul Thomas on the reading “crisis,” the cracks, and the ten-minute check left unanswered since 2020.
Here is my comment on Paul Thomas’s Substack post - https://paulthomas701128.substack.com/p/the-kids-today-cant-read-problem
You are right that “kids today can’t read” is an old complaint, and Gray in 1942 is a fair exhibit. You are also right that the United States did not collapse because some children left school weak readers. Dominance is a poor measure of whether a preventable failure was allowed to stand.
In Part 1, I wrote that people aren’t struggling because they don’t care. They’re struggling because no one aligned the path for them. That’s true in education too—especially in literacy.
For over a decade, I’ve pointed to what I believe is the “Holy Grail” of literacy reform: the actual cause of why so many children leave school as functional illiterates. It’s not hidden. It’s not complicated. It’s not a mystery.
Let’s get one thing straight: America isn’t talentless. It’s talent-blind.
We’ve got kids with Edison-level genius and Cruise-level grit—but we wait until Grade 3 to notice them. By then, the damage is done. The system has already mislabeled, misdiagnosed, and misplaced them.
That’s why I said it yesterday, and I’ll say it again:
Stop Importing Brains. Start Mining America’s Own.
The U.S. doesn’t have a talent shortage—it has a talent blindness. For decades, we’ve patched our broken education system by importing foreign brainpower. That’s not a solution. It’s a symptom.
The following is extracted from this website with my thoughts.
By 62, David Chalk had seen it all. While David conquered the world, he never managed to achieve the only thing he always had truly wanted, To Read Fluently.
He was a popular media personality, had built his business empire, made millions, was awarded a doctorate in technology by the University of the Fraser Valley for holding the world's only true patent in cyber security and was described as having a brilliantly gifted mind.
My thoughts:
I have repeatedly said that my so-called dyslexic students are smart kids. They have done exceptionally well in schools and Universities.
