State of the Union registers at 8th grade reading level

Dumbed it down? I didn't know teleprompters could be that high minded.

 

Remember who makes up his base.

 

Readability of the King James Bible

Passage Readability Grade Level

Genesis 1 8th Grade
Exodus 1 8th Grade
Romans 1 10th Grade
Romans 3:1-23 6th Grade
Romans 8 8th Grade

http://www.biblebelievers.net/bibleversions/kjckjv1s.htm

 

An eighth grade reading level is a very wise target. Nothing at all wrong with that.

 

The purpose of the Bible to teach men about God so that we may know Him. It is both simple enough for most any man to read and be saved and deep in the riches of an eternal God so that the scholar may never be bored of searching to learn its unfathomable wonders.

Politicians....not so much.

 

Obama's Average Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for Orally Delivered State of the Union Addresses = 8.4

GW's Average Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for Orally Delivered State of the Union Addresses = 8.6

Oh, noes, the world is coming to an end!

 

The highest average is held by Kennedy....anyone want to comment on that? :laugh:

oh...and Carter beat Reagan!

 

Carter beat Reagan? Well, that just goes to show that intellectually sounding speech does not mean the speaker is all that intelligent.

 

Every President prior to Reagan beat Reagan.

People are acting as if this is something new to Obama. The reading level of state of the unions has progressed downward at a steady rate as time has progressed. It has nothing to do with the President and everything to do with the audience. America as a whole is not as smart as it used to be. We still have some wonderfully bright minds, but they are the exception rather than the rule. The majority of American's reading level has decreased at the same rate as the state of the unions.

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/2012/01/my_message_is_simple_obamas_so.php

 

That makes sense to me. Schools used to be about teaching kids and building lifelong learners. Now they are about social engineering. We only need to look at the text books that used to be used and compare them to what is being used now to see this.

 

My issue was not on the speech per se -- he did a GREAT JOB of delivering a decent speech.

Rather, my problem is that I wish THAT president would show up for work one of these days, but alas, once the teleprompter is unplugged he goes back in the box with Achmed the Dead Terrorist, Billy-Bob, and the rest of the puppets.

I have other problems with his speech as well -- ideologically driven socialism for one -- but not on the delivery. He is an inspiring speaker and that is, sadly, part of his draw. We need SO MUCH MORE than an inspiring speaker. A leader would be a really good start... :tear:

 

Is that a 2012 8th grade or a 1912 8th grade?

 

As I was reading earlier, many fables were in the speech too.

"Obama's Big Six State of the Union Tax Myths"

http://news.investors.com/Article/598977/201201251842/obama-peddles-phony-tax-facts-in-speech.htm

snippet:

 

Companies don't deduct moving expenses when they move jobs off shore?

 

I don't have the time to dig up any supporting evidence right now, but I have seen the evidence in the past. Yes, a 8th grade education in 1912 was far superior to an 8th grade education of today when you talk about the core fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Of course our schools today offer much more than that, but I would say they offer way too much. I've argued this point (and was in the minority) around here before, but I think that art, shop, foreign languages, music, sports, etc should have no place in our publicly funded schools.