On Sun, 19 Oct 2003, Doug Henwood wrote:
> After we were on a panel together at CUNY a couple of weeks ago,
> Giovanni Arrighi told me that U.S. workers were more literate a
> century ago than today. I found that very hard to believe, but I
> didn't have the facts to make the argument. Does anyone here know
> about this?
>
> Doug
It's plausible. People receive way more formal education now (like 10-15% of people graduated from high school 100 years ago). Another important point: IQ performance--including performance on the verbal subtests--has increased dramatically over the same period of time. A person who scored average on an IQ test in 1920 would score around 65 now (borderline mentally retarded!). In terms of formal educational skills like reading and math, no contest: people are far, far better off now than 100 years ago.
Interesting sociological question: why is this not widely known in our society? Why is the opposing position--educational standards and abilities are decreasing over time--so popular, even though data clearly contradict the claim?
Miles