In Defense of Properly Teaching the 3R’s

I have frequently written that the two most important objectives of our K-12 education system:

a) should be clearly spelled out, and

b) should be consistent from State to State.

So far neither of these have happened — so the continued decline of our K-12 education system should be no surprise.

What are the two most important objectives of our K-12 education system? That graduates be properly educated so that they are:

1) proficient in the 3Rs (reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic), plus

2) critical thinkers.

I have repeatedly discussed the Critical Thinking part (e.g., here and here), but not as much the 3R aspect (as it seemed obvious). That said, I came across a wonderful commentary about the reading element of the 3Rs that I’m passing on. Thanks to Willis Eschenbach and his excellent “Illiteracy and Crime: A Dangerous Connection” which is posted below. I’ll add future commentaries about the other two R’s if I find the right material…

Here are a couple of depressing statistics.

• About 20% of Americans are functionally illiterate, meaning they lack the reading skills necessary to navigate many everyday tasks, such as reading instructions, filling out forms, or understanding basic written information
• About 70% of prisoners in US jails are functionally illiterate.

Clearly, illiteracy paves the road to jail. And this is understandable. If you can’t read, write, add, or subtract, there aren’t a whole lot of options for staying alive that don’t involve crimes of some sort.

We desperately need to fix this.

The first step is to reform our educational system. Here’s how crazy it’s gotten. In Oregon, they had a problem with functionally illiterate and innumerate kids being prevented from graduating from high school because they couldn’t pass the required 12th-grade English and math tests.

So did they improve the schools? Did they require further education for the teachers? Did they investigate which English and Math teaching methods work better than others? Did they institute special programs to bring the slower learners up to speed?

Get real. Oregon is a very blue state filled with the finest Democrats available. Here’s their solution.

They abolished the requirement that the kids have to pass the tests. They let anyone graduate, even if they can’t read one word.

That madness is happening in schools all over the US—keeping graduation rates up by simply lowering the standards. It’s not just Oregon. For example, Detroit has the highest functional illiteracy rate among high school graduates in the United States. According to research, only 18% of Detroit public school students demonstrated reading proficiency in the 2020–2021 academic year, and just 5% of 8th-grade Detroit students scored at a “proficient” level on the 8th-grade NAEP reading test.

As a result, the overall literacy rate in Detroit is approximately 47%, meaning that more than half of the city’s population is functionally illiterate. And surprise, surprise, Detroit also has one of the highest crime rates in the US. As I said above, illiteracy paves the road to jail.

So that lunacy has to stop. The best way to stop it is to make the tax money follow the STUDENT, not the SCHOOL. That way, the schools will have to compete to attract students by improving programs, conditions, and outcomes. In addition, it will encourage homeschooling. 74% of homeschooled students go on to attend college, compared to 44% of public school students.

Next, we need to institute a program to teach reading, writing, and life skills (budgeting, balancing a checkbook, communication, time management, etc.) in every prison in the nation. Yes, it will cost money, but I suspect that a number of people would volunteer to teach those subjects in prison if their safety could be guaranteed. And to make it work, we need to offer incentives to the prisoners to engage in the program.

As an example, in Brazil, there’s a program called “Redemption through Reading” (Remição pela Leitura).

For each book they read from an approved list and report on, inmates can reduce their sentence by four days, up to a maximum of 48 days per year. This initiative aims to promote education and rehabilitation within the prison system.

It seems to me that some variant of that system could be instituted to teach not just reading but math and the other life skills that the prisoners lack. This will give them the tools that they need to be able to survive without stealing.

Anyhow, that’s where my monkey mind has been wandering this Saturday evening. My very best to everyone — Willis Eschenbach

©2025 John Droz, Jr. All rights reserved.

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