Illiteracy Jumps in China, Despite 50-Year Campaign to Eradicate It - washingtonpost.com

Illiteracy Jumps in China, Despite 50-Year Campaign to Eradicate It - washingtonpost.com:

"Illiteracy is increasing in China, despite a 50-year-old campaign to stamp it out and a declaration by the government in 2000 that it had been nearly eradicated. The reasons are complex, from the cost of a rural education to the growing appeal of migrant work that draws Chinese away from classrooms and toward far-off cities.

In many cases, as in this farming hamlet in China's southern Guizhou province, villagers whose education ended in elementary school have simply forgotten basic skills."

No wonder fortunes in cookies don't always make sense!

Have you ever noticed a futility in campaigns? Campaign for this, campaign against that -- they don't work. There's always a campaign in the United States to get people to quit smoking or there's campaigns that require more and more "education" about pre-marital sex and the "educational campaigns" always ensure that there's lots and lots of pre-marital sex.

Campaigns don't work, close interactions do (i.e. close interactions with family members) -- if the family doesn't encourage education there's not going to be a high value set in terms of that goal.

Of course on the other hand it's easier to control the masses if most of them can't read ;-)

Check out Orwell Farm