Year Of The Opposite - Travis Stoliker's Substack Podcast

Yesterday I shared a statistic: 54% of American adults can’t read above a 6th-grade level. I thought it was pretty shocking so I wanted to note it so I could start investigating it. That’s why I shared it.

But it’s the responses (some had to be hidden/deleted) that I want to talk about.

The comment replies quickly turned into assigning blame to either teachers or parents. It had to be one of them!

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And of course, some assumed that I was making a political statement. I wasn’t.

I was just pointing out an uncomfortable truth that I had just learned and wanted to investigate.

This kind of reaction happens a lot nowadays, and it’s a sign of our polarization. It’s tied to something called motivated reasoning and false dichotomy.

Motivated reasoning is when we process information in a way that supports what we already believe, instead of looking at the facts objectively. It’s similar to confirmation bias.

False dichotomy is when we reduce an issue to only two opposing sides, ignoring the nuances and other possible explanations.

We need to be careful about this. I need to be careful about it.

When it comes to the reading issue that I mentioned in my post, it’s possible that both parents and teachers play a role, but it could also be other factors, or none of them at all.

To truly understand an issue like this, we need to keep an open mind and look at the entire history, not just our preferred explanations.

For example, the shift from phonics to the whole language model education seems to have had a significant impact. But no one mentioned that.

Changes in educational policy, and even the metabolic health of children & adults today, could also play a part.

Poverty, screen time, family structure, child care, two parents working—these all could play a role.

The point is, when we’re faced with uncomfortable truths, it’s easy to retreat into our tribes and defend our positions. But real progress comes from being willing to explore the full picture, even when it challenges our assumptions.

So, let’s stay open-minded and avoid jumping to conclusions. Instead of debating who’s right or wrong, let’s focus on understanding the issue in all its complexity.

As always, these aren’t lectures they are reminders to myself.

On another note, that last post upset a lot of people and I had a lot of unsubscribes. No worries.

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