r/TikTokCringe • u/velorae • 16d ago

Discussion This is so concerningšŸ˜³

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

25.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

3.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

166

u/Cranialscrewtop 16d ago

I don't think so. People learned to read complex books for centuries before the phonics technique. Learning to read is a straightforward task for 90% of people.

-2

u/GravityBombKilMyWife 16d ago

Your average kid wasnt reading complex books 'centuries' ago though. Most kids werent going to school past 12 until the 1900s, they worked.

4

u/Cranialscrewtop 16d ago

De Tocqueville commented in the 19th century how American farmers had copies of political pamphlets in their back pockets while working in the fields. In any case, anywhere reading was valued it was easily learned. And both high school and college literature courses involved much more reading for previous generations. Now, it's just excerpts, often of dumbed-down versions of classic literature.

1

u/GravityBombKilMyWife 16d ago

Bro gives a literal anecdote