Over 50% of American adults have sub 6th grade literacy. Roughly 28% are not literate at all. It is important to remember this at all times.

It is done. Here are clickable links of over 400 books in the western canon, separated by age group. It's meant for all of you who want the best for your child's education and for your own as well. The good news? Emily Dickinson was right when she said of books: "How frugal is the chariot that bears the human soul." Link to the library below: ⬇️

I'm delighted to see my charts have been posted in response to this multiple times. If you look at American PISA performance, you see a consistent picture: Americans utterly dominate once you split them by race. 🧵

🇺🇸 CRAZY IS RIGHT: AMERICA’S READING CRISIS IS SELF-INFLICTED Teaching English without phonics is like teaching math without numbers. Elon Musk summed it up in one word, “Crazy.” Across America, schools are abandoning phonics, the proven method for teaching kids to read, in favor of trendy “balanced literacy” programs built on guessing words from pictures or context. The approach sounds gentle, but it’s devastating. Children aren’t decoding language anymore, they’re memorizing shapes and guessing meanings. Phonics works. The National Reading Panel proved it boosts literacy across grades K–6, especially for struggling students. The Rose Report called it “the prime approach for beginners.” Yet many schools cling to “balanced literacy,” where kids guess words from pictures instead of decoding them. The result? Only one in three fourth-graders can read proficiently, and scores keep falling. Mississippi fixed it years ago, they mandated phonics and climbed from last place to the top. Teaching English without phonics is like teaching math without numbers. It makes no sense, and it leaves kids behind. Elon’s right, this isn’t a debate, it’s negligence. The science is settled. Bring phonics back or keep failing America’s children. Sources: Stanford University, International Literacy Association, ReadlingLeague