{"id":1125,"date":"2026-10-24T23:32:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T06:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2026-10-24T23:32:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T06:32:56","slug":"reading-is-fundamental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/24\/reading-is-fundamental\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading is Fundamental"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Literacy.<\/em><\/strong> We use the word to mean the ability to parse text, but it’s not that simple. Roughly 87% of the world’s population can read. Almost a third of those people read in a language that they don’t speak at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In becoming literate, in the text-parsing sense, many people enter a world that does not resemble their home life. Things that one would say to a loved one, or intimate details about natural environments, can be unrepresented in text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Literacy doesn’t only apply to text. Social literacy allows us to connect with peers and move into wider circles. Emotional literacy allows us to understand others and communicate intimacy. Cultural literacy connects us to our past and provides bridges to the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we put a premium on parsing text, at the expense of social, emotional, and cultural literacy, passed on from person to person, something is lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ability to parse text is not the be-all end-all life skill it’s made out to be. Sometimes, it’s actually separating us from our communities. Many of our children who struggle to parse text are actually highly literate in parsing social, emotional, and cultural information, but they are not met there, and their attention is diverted toward text parsing as a kind of ultimatum, ignoring their gifts in social, emotional, and cultural literacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notice any given moment of your life. Is there any text that can touch that? Is there any human relationship that can touch that? In my experience, human relationships are more reliable than text at touching the heart of a moment. That being said, in these times, human relationships are not always as readily accessible as text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is that? I think that this is the crux of our current dilemma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Literacy. We use the word to mean the ability to parse text, but it’s not that simple. Roughly 87% of the world’s population can read. Almost a third of those people read in a language that they don’t speak at home. In becoming literate, in the text-parsing sense, many people enter a world that does…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,603,14,15,9],"tags":[172,634,188,13,100,632,61,12,635,633],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-essay","category-neurodiversity","category-politics","category-reflection","tag-belonging","tag-communication","tag-community","tag-education","tag-equity","tag-literacy","tag-neurodiversity","tag-politics","tag-reading","tag-sel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paor1p-i9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":749,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/23\/whats-the-deal-with-literacy-these-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":1125,"position":0},"title":"what\u2019s the deal with literacy these days?","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"April 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's take a moment to say something out loud:there's a lot of terrible writing in the world;and a lot of terrible writing is one of the reasonsmany of our kids are not excited to sit and squint and parse, under fluorescentlighting, at desks that wreck their bodies, in rowsof kids,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/img_1297.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/img_1297.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/img_1297.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":947,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/12\/the-literal-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":1125,"position":1},"title":"the literal life","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"October 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve read things literally my whole life. Hold up. Let me rephrase that. Actually, let me point out how that is a perfect opening statement for this piece I'm trying to write about life as a literalist. Everything is wrong with this sentence, if I pick it apart. Not literally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":813,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/12\/complementary-adaptation-toward-a-kinder-view-of-neurodiversity-and-disability-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1125,"position":2},"title":"complementary adaptation: toward a kinder view of neurodiversity and disability","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Two people in a boat. One can row, but cannot navigate. The other can navigate, but cannot row. If we view each as a whole, each has both an asset and a liability\u2014each is both abled and disabled. If we view the relationship as a whole, we can describe things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1630.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1630.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1630.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1630.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":822,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/16\/822\/","url_meta":{"origin":1125,"position":3},"title":"?","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"my tendency is to laugh at my first impressions.something in my history casts a sinister spellthat even the simplest question disperses.delightful surprises arise when i gobeyond the first brush of my eyes.followup questions are the love languagein my dialogue with life.","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1656.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1656.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1656.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1656.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1656.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":829,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/21\/bigender-identity-journal-entry\/","url_meta":{"origin":1125,"position":4},"title":"bigender identity journal entry","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"i passed 3 tween girls doing a coordinated dance for tiktok on a walk recognition: that's me. memory: when i was a kid, i wanted to play jump rope and hand-clapping games with the girls, instead of kickball and four-square. the boys were always trying to win, and would spike\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_1683.jpg?fit=350%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":867,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/29\/toe-walking-red-flag-or-somatic-wisdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1125,"position":5},"title":"Toe-walking: red flag, or somatic wisdom?","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"August 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The adaptation-to-pathology pipeline, pt 1 This series explores human traits and behaviors that are pathologized in the modern Western office-industrial complex, with the intent to spark cross-cultural discussion, and reassessment of what it means to be divergent. 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