I found this podcast from this post:
I subbed today for a 7th and 8th grade teacher. I’m not exaggerating when I say at least 50% of the students were at a 2nd grade reading level. The students were to spend the class time filling out an “all about me” worksheet, what’s your name, favorite color, favorite food etc. I was asked 20 times today “what is this word?”. Movie. Excited. Trait. “How do I spell race car driver?”
I’ve only listened to one episode so far, but it’s really well produced, seems well-researched and very well put together.
From what I gather so far, the ways that the American public school system “teaches” kids how to read is not only completely wrong, but actually saddles them bad habits which fundamentally hinder their reading comprehension.
A huge swath of American adults are functionally illiterate, and I think I’m starting to understand why.
A literacy campaign could be started in Afghanistan, too. I’m not sure how that would look in Afghanistan specifically because I know nothing about their history and current context beyond US intervention and the Taliban being in power, but if a proletarian government took power I’m sure that’d be one of their first steps.
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA),[a] renamed the Republic of Afghanistan[b] in 1987, was the Afghan state during the one-party rule of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1978 to 1992. It relied heavily on assistance from the Soviet Union for most of its existence, especially during the Soviet–Afghan War.
The PDPA came to power through the Saur Revolution, which ousted the regime of the unelected autocrat Mohammed Daoud Khan; he was succeeded by Nur Muhammad Taraki as the head of state and government on 30 April 1978.[3] Taraki and Hafizullah Amin, the organizer of the Saur Revolution, introduced several contentious reforms during their rule, such as land and marriage reforms and an enforced policy of de-Islamization alongside the promotion of socialism.[4]
Education During communist rule, the PDPA government reformed the education system; education was stressed for both sexes, and widespread literacy programmes were set up.[149] By 1988, women made up 40 percent of the doctors and 60 percent of the teachers at Kabul University; 440,000 female students were enrolled in different educational institutions and 80,000 more in literacy programs.[150] In addition to introducing mass literacy campaigns for women and men, the PDPA agenda included: massive land reform program; the abolition of bride price; and raising the marriage age to 16 for girls and to 18 for boys. [151]
if only the CIA hadn’t fucked them up so badly by funding and training all those far right religious extremists
Never let the United States run Educational Aid in your country
Thank you comrade. Any book you can recommend to learn more?
I am not an expert I would check zerobooks or haymarket or verso books for the possibility of a non-brainwormed take. This one caught my eye - The forty year war on Afghanistan
But I dunno if it just comes down to both sideism or is there a more nuanced take on Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
Hopefully someone will convince the taliban people need to be taught to read to study the Quran