Descent

PEOPLE IN CONGRESS do not speak on as high a level as they used to. Nowadays members, on average, speak on about a tenth grade level. twenty years ago they spoke on an eleventh grade level, according to recent analysis.

the analysis is based on the idea that with each level upward, sentences become longer, and words have more syllables. certainly there is some truth to this; small children use small words and short sentences, but people who express high level thinking do not automatically use more complicated sentence structure and words, so the analysis has limitations.

on average americans communicate on about a ninth grade level and newspapers are written on an eigth grade level. members of congress no longer speak only to each other, they speak to the entire nation through television, so they are still talking a bit above us. but if we are patient, they seem to be on their way down to our level.

maybe when they get there, they'll seem to be making more sense.

if you read diaries of civil war soldiers with little or no formal education, you notice that the writing style seems sophisticated and highly educated. in the nineteenth century there was little to distract people away from the reading and writing basics, so even ostensibly poorly educated folks sound well educated to us.

there is no need to worry about this. overall we are far better educated than our ancestors, with a much larger body of information per capita. vocabulary and diction will doubtless always be a vital part of human communication. we write more books than ever, but we have less time and inclination to read them, due to increased options. on average americans read one book after completing high school, allegedly.

our seeming descent into illiteracy is illusory. we can trust our descendants to express themselves intelligently, because the more we complain about our own lack of it, the more likely we will be to reverse the current trend.

Bb

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