I'm always a bit bemused by ranting around Look At All This Stuff Kids Don't Know Find Me a Teacher to Blame.
Because the thing is, plenty of functioning adults don't have these skills, either.
Take spelling. The spelling of the average citizen is appalling. This is bigger than a few missing apostrophes - despite the fact that California reliably and annually places multiple questions (out of a mere forty) about plural endings and consonant doubling on its standard exams, adults I know spell these words wrong all the time.
Don't get me started on the limited vocabulary or basic innumeracy Americans display.
I only see two real possibilities here. Either these skills are very hard to learn and few people ever do, or whatever failure there has been in teaching them has gone on for a long time. Perhaps the fact that we don't really prize basic spelling - I don't care how many spelling bee documentaries are made, the fact is we have spellcheck - or vocabulary.
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