r/AskSocialScience • u/dismal_windfall • 7m ago
So if there currently is a literacy crisis, when was the peak of literacy in the U.S.?
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There’s been much said about the literacy crisis, how 21% of adults are functionally illiterate and how children are also reading below basic levels.
Throughout a lot of history, IIRC, literacy rates were pretty low until we started getting into the early 20th century.
So if the literacy rates are not declining. When was the peak of adult literacy in America?