Beware Statistics!

 

Search for Accuracy

Recently I came upon this statistic:  "Internationally the U.S. ranks 125th for literacy.  Fifty four percent of Americans between 16 & 17 read below a 6th grade level." I was shocked until I saw a correction! It said, "U.S. ranks 36th for literacy."  That was better, but still disappointing.  However, equally concerning was how someone could post that kind of misinformation, and if the first information was wrong, should I believe the correction?

The internet can be very helpful, but before information is believed, it is important to search other sources.  In addition, it is important to determine the intention of the researcher.  Is there a bias in the research?  Did you bring your own bias and select only the information you wanted to find? 

As an example, after finding the statistics in the first paragraph, I went in search of other statistics to determine the accuracy of the first paragraph.      

 Data Pandas framed their survey as Education Rankings, and their conclusions begin with Iceland and continued as follows:  Iceland, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, UK, Slovenia, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and placing the US at 13th.

Obviously, the way the research is framed makes a great deal of difference.  Rather than a narrower definition, U.S. News split their research into two evaluations:  Literacy and A Well-Developed Public Education System.  For example, their research found Denmark first in literacy, but 10th in public education.  The U.S. was 12th in literacy, but 3rd in public education.

 If you search online, you can find both accurate information and inaccurate information.  The point is, that even accurate information can be misleading if we do not understand the context of the research.  .  

The internet, and the world in general, are full of tricksters, as well as innocent but misinformed people.  It is easy, even in good faith, to be misled.  Access to information on the internet is so valuable to all of us, but we must always remember that just because something is posted online does not authenticate its accuracy.  I suggest that you check more than one source, do not rely only on sources with whom you already agree, and if you find a source guilty of misinformation more than once or twice, look for another source.   

Here is another suggestion.  Reading, whether it is fiction or nonfiction, tends to make us more aware of words.  We develop a skill that alerts us to awkward excuses, that makes the text feel false.  We don't always know we are developing those skills, but gradually we find ourselves choosing better books to read.  Ultimately, it makes us recognize illogic reasoning.  As reading is less a part of our lives, we become less efficient in identifying logic and reason.  The thing about a good book is that the story unrolls gradually, forcing us to follow the characters, fictional or real, and try to figure them out.  "What are they up to?  Can they be trusted?  What will they do next?"  The characters force us to reason things through, without someone telling us.  Logic and reasoning skills develop as we read, without us realizing.  With those skills, we are better able to think about what we hear all around us.  Reading Cliff Notes or the summary on the back of the book does not develop these skills. 

Children are more likely to become readers if they are read to soon after they are born--even before they can actually understand the words.  If you want your children to become readers--and I hope you do--then let them see you reading from the time they are born until they are grown.  

 I happened to be reading a book on writing by Stephen King, and he urged that the best way to learn how to write well was to read books by good authors, not to copy their style but rather to see how good writers of all kinds put words together well. Here are some of the books on Stephen King's own list of favorites.  (From his book, "On Writing.")     

    A Death in the Family, James Agee; Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens; The Poisonwood Bible, Barbrara Kingsolver; To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, and All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr.  My own reading list is heavy on history, and you might like Joseph Anton, by Salman Rushdie, or if you are really ambitious, Nigel Hamilton's history of FDR's leadership in WW 11.  As for myself, I still have a stack of history books about American leaders that should keep me busy...