From where I sit, the important question in the general vicinity of this discussion would be:
Can the average American -- I stress *average* -- today think more cogently and intelligently, and understand her/his world and her/his place in it better, than the average American a century, or two centuries, ago.
My answer, without any rigorous studies to back it up, would be: probably not (that is, Americans today have more formal education, but I don't see evidence that they make much use of it once they get out of school).
OTOH, highly educated Americans probably can use the advances in knowledge of the last century or two to understand the world better than their earlier counterparts (but that doesn't mean that they necessary *do* use them). I don't think their reading skills are appreciably different from their ancestors. Nor do they write any better or worse -- just with a different style.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)