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Is reading a fundamental right. It says nothing in the Constitution about literacy. What do you think?
https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2018/07/01/detroit-literacy-education-rights/748052002/
https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2018/07/01/detroit-literacy-education-rights/748052002/
Education
Educator
Reading
Writing
Literature
Edited 6 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 10
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I would argue that literacy is inextricably tied to speech which is a guaranteed Right. However, with every Right comes a Responsibility. Both belong to individuals. Remember, teachers are not responsible for putting knowledge into our heads. Learning is the students responsibility. The teacher is there to help.
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CPT Jack Durish
MSgt David Hoffman - To be insulted is your choice. And, to be fair, I misspoke. Although you appear to share with the masters of Facebook the desire to infringe on free speech, you do not share their particular ideology.
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CPT Jack Durish
MSgt David Hoffman - I doubt that they even considered such a possibility. We certainly have no record of it and it is impossible to impose our opinions on them. Thus, the Founders will have to remain forever mute on the subject.
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CPT Jack Durish
MSgt David Hoffman - It appears we're arguing opinions and you know what they're like. Have a nice day...
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
Well you cannot, but being able to do things on a computer sure encouraged my grandson to learn to read well when he was around 8.
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SSG (ret) William Martin
That is exactly my thoughts. Rights are regulated to ensure people are getting what they are entitled to such as due process under the law. Learning is not a right but the government, state and federal, creates avenues for us to hop onto so we have the chance to learn.
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CPT Jack Durish
You cannot force anyone to do anything. It is a parent's duty to teach their children to love it
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CPT Jack Durish
No one said anything about forcing anyone to exercise a right. Everyone has the right to keep and bear arms, and there are many who not only don't exercise it, but also want to deny others that right.
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Interesting concept/question. Have no statistics to back this up, but Constitution was written during the time where a significant portion of the population could not read, but everyone could speak so freedom of speech was included in the Constitution but freedom to read wasn't even thought of. Through the centuries the ability to read was always a privilege of the upper levels of society, not the general population, so historically speaking it's not a fundamental right. Modern societies have evolved and educated themselves to the point where the ability to read is a necessity to be able to completely function but I'm not so sure that this fact makes it a right. I tend to agree with CPT Jack Durish that reading is a subset inextricably tied to speech, without speech there is no written word and if there is no written word there is no need to read.
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CPT Jack Durish
I think you'll find that the Colonists were more literate than their European counterparts. Indeed, illiteracy was brought to America by immigrants. As an aside, I found it interesting while reading the stories of Louis L'Amour that those who pioneered and settled the West traveled with books. Every frontier home, according to L'Amour, had a Bible and a copy of the classics that they read and reread frequently. (L'Amour was a serious researcher) Also, a Committee of Style insured that the Constitution was written in plain language so that all Americans could read and understand it. This would infer a need for literacy and thus, an attendant Right/Responsibility to be literate.
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
Totally agree, a good part of immigration to the colonies was to escape the ignorance of Europe and the need for education was a mainstay of early colonial towns. Grew up visiting surviving one room school houses that dated to the 1600s. The bible was how people learned to read, so it makes sense that it and important books made the journey west.
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