[MD] Drama

[Heather Perella]

    Hello dmb, Marsha, Platt, Arlo, Ian, and others

 [dmb]
> For example, 120 million 
> Americans can read no better than a 5th with many of
> them unable to read at 
> all.

     If that number is anywhere near being accurate I
have one sound to make:  Wooooo!

  [dmb]
> The number of people who are genuinely
> literate, people who regularly 
> read serious books, may be as low as 3%.

     This culture has no applicable place for serious
books, don't you think?

  [dmb]
> 60% have
> never read a book of any 
> kind. 42% could not locate Japan on a map and 35% of
> Americans couldn't even 
> find the USA on a map.

     My wife is a history teacher.   She runs across
those who can't read maps.  For example, she had a
question on a recent worksheet.  What U.S. state is
bordered by only one other U.S. state?  The 11th or
12th grader put Mexico as the answer.  [It's Maine]  I
told my wife to put on the child's worksheet: "Since
when did Mexico become a U.S. state?"  On the same
worksheet, a different child, they marked Hong Kong
out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean south of
Hawaii.  Again, she marked "when did a city get built
in the middle of the ocean?"  If these children would
answer these questions I wonder what they would say.

  [dmb]
> Only 2% of American teens can
> name the Chief Justice

     Sorry, but I don't even know this ones name
off-hand.  
 
  [dmb]
> and only 4% could read a bus schedule. The National
> Science Foundation did a 
> survey to measure the scientific literacy of
> American adults. 56% thought an 
> electron was bigger than an atom and 91% could not
> say what a molecule was.

     A bus schedule... now that I do find surprising,
unless, the teens are riding the bus via habit.  They
know where they want to go, once they see the
destination, they get off the bus.  
     When would knowing a electron size matter in this
culture, and also knowing what a molecule is.  Now if
their physicists and doctors we have a problem.

   [dmb]
> 63% thought early humans lived with dinosaurs, but
> hey, they were only wrong 
> by about 60 million years.

     Well, some of the older black and white and
colored movies showed dinosaurs with humans.  Anyways,
why is this important to know in this culture.

     [dmb]
> 53% didn't even
> understand that it takes a year 
> for earth to orbit the sun.

     Who cares about nature?  So what if we drill in
Alaska, so what if we let animals go extinct, so what
if I don't see trees.
  
   [dmb]
> And only 6% of American
> adults reads as much as 
> one book per year, and that includes any crappy old
> book.

     Books talk about principals and values.  Talk to
me about how I'm going to get my next paycheck and
food on the table.  Why does any of this matter.

     [dmb]  
> As much as I'd like to think the present leaders are
> to blame, I'm afraid 
> its much bigger and deeper than that. If Berman is
> correct, we're presently 
> watching our civilization collaspe, Thus, the
> monastic option. Sigh. Maybe 
> you should paint a blue picture today. I did.

     Yes, the home life, building a monastery at home,
being with the family, working around the yard, and
walking in the woods.  By the way, I'm all for
reading.  I read almost everyday.  I'm just pointing
out, putting on the mask of the cynic, and showing the
devil's advocate called U.S. culture.  
     Also, some of those answers I gave above, are
exact answers I get from the residents, such as what
do deer or trees have to do with me getting $.  Some
of the other answers, be experience with these
residents, I project these residents would say as
well, if they knew what an electron  was.  I do admit
some are culturally smart enough to know what an
electron is.  I hear one of residents talk about DNA,
evolution, and so forth, it's odd to hear a resident
speak in such culturally literate terms.  They don't
think about these kinds of things.  They just want to
talk about their family, how their right staff is
wrong, and now that school has started on campus the
Drama is moving off the unit and the Drama is become
trans-unit.  By drama, I'm talking about the negative
social atmosphere how 'she said this' or 'she said
that' about such and such person.

SA

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