mlydo

[mlydo]

do you have any ideas about why so many students are struggling with literacy now? I know that illiteracy and reading comprehension have been issues for years and most americans read at like a 5th grade reading level but I’m curious why it seems to be worse now (pandemic? no child left behind?)

It is everything. There’s not one answer. I could talk about this forever so instead I set a five minute timer on my phone and wrote a list of as many of the many things that are causing this on a systemic level that I could think of:

It’s parents not reading with their kids (a privilege, but some parents have that privilege to be able to do this and don’t.)

It’s youtube from birth and never being bored.

It’s phasing out phonics for sight words (memorizing without understanding sounds or meaning) in elementary schools in the early aughts.

It’s defunding public libraries that do all the community and youth outreach.

It’s NCLB and mandating standardized tests which center reading short passages as opposed to longform texts so students don’t build up the endurance or comprehension skills.

It’s NCLB preventing schools from holding students back if they lack the literacy skills to move onto the next grade because they can’t be left behind so they’re passed on.

It’s the chronic underfunding of ESL and Special Ed programs for students who need extra literacy support.

It’s the cultural devaluing of the humanities in favor of stem and business because those make more money which leads to a lot of students to completely disregard reading and writing.

It’s the learning loss from covid.

It’s covid trauma manifesting in a lot of students as learned helplessness, or an inability to “figure things out” or push through adversity to complete challenging tasks independently, especially reading difficult texts.

It’s covid normalizing cheating and copying.

It’s increasing phone use.

It’s damage to attention span exacerbated by increased phone use that leaves you without an ability to sit and be bored ever without 2-3 forms of constant stimulation.

It’s shortform video becoming the predominant form of social media content as opposed to anything text-based.

It’s starting to also be generative AI.

It’s the book bans.

what did I miss.

[mlydo]

remember lego movie smear frames. remember how beautiful and genius lego movie smear frames were . are you listening to me. they used only real bricks. so it would look like stop motion. they used real bricks to make smear frames for minifigures doing gestures and stuff isnt that crazy. the lego movie smear frames

[mlydo]

cloth fibers ranked by how much sense they make to me

wool. the most sensible and natural fiber. wool is hair from meaty, not very bright animals. I have hair, meat and did not excell in school, so I relate and understand this best

cotton. Cotton is made from plants, but don't be scared yet. these plants are basically small sheep for they are wooly and have hard seeds in them like how sheep are wooly and have hard bones inside them

silk. I was fairly terrorized as a child by caterpillars that made massive silk tents in mulberry trees. We came in into conflict because both of us liked to eat mulberries and climb mulberry trees and also because they liked falling out of the tree upon my person. this was distressing for me for various reasons primary amongst them was that I had been told by the wisdom of my peers that if one of them bit me I would die. anyway I believe that silk comes from caterpillars because I have seen it I have witnessed it I have lived it

linen. bizarre. have you watched videos of people turning flax into fibers? I have watched video after video of flax being transformed from plant to linen and none of it makes any sense. One moment, it's a plant and then if you comb it enough it becomes hair. utterly incomprehensibe witchcraft

PLASTIC? PLASTIC? PLAstic??????

spandex. incomprehensibe. uncontainable. might as well be string theory to me.

[mlydo]

seeing the 'mutual' icon change to 'following' feels like finding out ur getting a divorce through the morning newspaper

[mlydo]

'this property says it has nine acres but those neighbours look pretty clo-'

oh.

ohhhhhhhhh no

[mlydo]

this post feels like it’s lost some of its original context because I remember reblogging it in 2012 when I didn’t have a smart phone and smart phone ownership was much lower in general. So being on tumblr on Christmas meant being physically at a computer and being visibly unsocial if not completely removed from any festivities. Now everyone’s on social media every day of the year. A true heritage post really

[mlydo]

not to be insensitive but some of the salem witch trials were so funny bitches like “i saw her at the devils sacrament!!!” girl… what were YOU doing at the devils sacrament 👀

[mlydo]

[mlydo]

I GOT 10 MINUTES LEFT OF BEING A TEENAGER I GOTTA DO SOMETHING REBELLIOUS UH

[mlydo]

[mlydo]

this callout couldve been a block button

[mlydo]

the curse is lifted! you are no a beast no more! congratulations! but you'll never forget the way they looked at you, will you.

[mlydo]

aromantic and interested in shipping in much the same way people are interested in superheroes. like man wouldnt it be cool if dating was real. id love to imagine what i would do if dating was real. here's my tierlist of the best kinds of dating. number 4 may surprise you.

[mlydo]

"The creator definitely didn't put that much thought into it" well then clearly someone else has to and I think I'm the weirdo for the job

[mlydo]

peeling those sour rainbow gummy strips into long thin strings and putting them into cheap energy drink to create something im calling battery acid spaghetti will update once ive finished it

[mlydo]

christmas only being brought up as a hallucination kai had once in ninjago is very important to me because it means I can finally imagine a world in which the holiday season is naught but a scary dream

[mlydo]

'they could never hate you [x character]' type post but its about a character that never gets any hate ever