How will children catch up with reading progress given the decline in reading and other skills during the Pandemic? That's a challenging question to me. We've built a complicated education system that produces very educated people.
Only 12% of the people in the world could read and write in 1820. Today it is more than 95% in many countries. The global literacy rate is above 86%. The age of enlightenment modernized about the education systems of Europe and produced a reading public.
Do you know that literacy in the 17th and 18th century was defined as the ability to sign one's name? Don't we take things for granted now.
Sometimes we want to stay on topic and we get distracted: Here's a joke that is off-topic for the right location:
A KGB agent goes to a library and sees an old Jewish man reading a book. “What are you reading, old man?” he asks.
“I’m learning Hebrew, comrade,” replies the old Jew.
The KGB agent asks, “What are you learning Hebrew for? You know it takes years to get a permission to travel to Israel? You will die before you get one.”
“I’m learning Hebrew for when I go to heaven so I can speak with Moses and Abraham,” replies the old man.
“How do you know you’re going to heaven? What if you go to hell?” asks the KGB agent.
“I already speak Russian."
Today's images are of nicely coloured branches for winter urn displays that have been twisted around in Flexifly by Flaming Pear.
