I found this podcast from this 
post:
I subbed today for a 7th and 8th grade teacher. I’m not exaggerating when I say at least 50% of the students were at a 2nd grade reading level. The students were to spend the class time filling out an “all about me” worksheet, what’s your name, favorite color, favorite food etc. I was asked 20 times today “what is this word?”. Movie. Excited. Trait. “How do I spell race car driver?”
I've only listened to one episode so far, but it's really well produced, seems well-researched and very well put together.
From what I gather so far, the ways that the American public school system "teaches" kids how to read is not only completely wrong, but actually saddles them bad habits which fundamentally hinder their reading comprehension.
A huge swath of American adults are functionally illiterate, and I think I'm starting to understand why.
I had to google this because I missed it somehow and didn't fucking believe it but holy shit, time really did stop in the 1970s for some of these fucking people. When some of them get dementia and you ask them what year it is, they'll tell you in total seriousness and full confidence that it's 1978, and get angry if you tell them otherwise. Biden can (probably) say what year it is correctly, but on the inside for him it's still nineteen fucking seventy eight.
Come to think of it, the Victorian Age never ended, we are still trapped in the nineteenth century (the imperial stage of capitalism), we just have phones and airplanes and the internet so we think otherwise, but people at that time also thought "wow technology we're so advanced!" even though it was the year 1878.