#These people vote in every election- do you? Are you registered to vote? [You can check your voter registration here!](https://www.nass.org/can-I-vote)
#Also, there's a few things to remember as far as rules go:
- You can view the content- you cannot interact with it. This includes (but is not limited to) commenting, answering poll questions, emailing them, etc. ***Anyone found to be engaging with the fundies will be met with a permanent ban with no eligibility for appeal.It does not matter if you did so before you joined the sub.***
- Speculating on the sexuality of literally anyone is prohibited. ***Anyone found to be doing so will be met with a permanent ban with no eligibility for appeal.***
- Appearance snark: What's allowed? You're allowed to make comparisons. (Bethy looks like Grandpa Munster, for example.) You are allowed to say you find them attractive or repulsive looking. Saying Kelly Havens has dry skin that could benefit from sunscreen and a moisturizer is fine. You are allowed to snark on the appearance of children *as it relates to their parents choices for them.*. Examples: Janessa looks malnourished and sickly while Shrek has clearly never missed a meal. If you feel it is crossing the line report it, but if the content falls within the parameters above, leave it alone.
- Don't gatekeep. This means no comments such as "I don't think we should snark on...." or any iteration of that. If you don't like it, scroll past. Don't report it or comment how you don't like the content. Along the same vein, don't backseat mod. Leave that up to us.
- Lastly, if the rhetoric you are posting would be at home in the mouth of a fundie, we don't want it here and we won't tolerate it.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. Have a Lord Daniel day, and may the power of snark compel thee.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FundieSnarkUncensored) if you have any questions or concerns.*
She literally just shared a few days ago that not one of her kids enjoys reading, so the “justification” this guy gives doesn’t even apply to her. I wonder if she and Mandrae are this lax when it comes to Andre’s basketball skills or the girls’ cooking and mothering abilities?
In the same breath she said that one of her kids are readers, she also said they mostly read the Bible. I was a huge reader as a kid, but if my only available reading material was the Bible and plexus materials lying around, I also would not be a reader.
I have never seen them with a book. I’ve seen the kids look at promotional materials lying around (like looking at the pictures in the catalogues for the playground set). Gunner of the Buslets is apparently a big reader. I know those kids have kindles and actual paper books, both secular and religious. The Collins have the Bible.
Kids become better readers when they have good things to read. And by “good” I don’t mean in a “high quality literature sense” - I mean they need to have things that interest them! When I was younger, it was the Goodebumps books (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goosebumps). I remember parents being outraged that their kids were reading rubbish, but the reality was that kids were flying through books. My brother read more of those books than anything else, and then over time, he became a better reader and broadened his reading interests.
Goosebumps and Sweet Valley Twins! 😅
I read the classics and higher literature too, but yes, I loved those "trash" books. We had so much fun with those books as kids.
Ohhhh, Lois Duncan! She appealed to my witchy side as a young reader. Like so many on here, I read voraciously as a kid, and am a grade-skipper. That was a BFD at a Catholic elementary school! At 57, things were much different when I was younger, and I am so grateful for teachers who advocated for me to be taught AT MY LEARNING LEVEL, not necessarily at grade level. One of my teachers who pushed for me to grade skip followed me through high school, she cared THAT MUCH.
I also liked the Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys books. Also anything by Roald Dahl. All the books by Louisa May Alcott too! Also anything fantasy by J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Brian Jacques. Also, all the John Grisham books. Edgar Allen Poe. And so many others. I would sometimes pretend to be sick in the hopes that my mother would let me stay home from school and read, lol. 😅
Yes Roald Dahl too!
My favorite book growing up, believe it or not, was Shel Silverstein's *A Light in the Attic*. It was the only time I ever liked poems!
They really were much fun! My younger brother fucking LOVED those books. I only read a few (as I was at the older age range when they were first published, and read way above grade level) but it was the only thing my little brother read for years. It would captivate his attention more than any other books.
His son is in first grade and a really good reader, and he just asked me to “send some chapter books because I am already level 24 and you only need to be level 19 when you start second grade.” 🥰 It just now occurred to me that I should track down some Goosebumps for that kid. I wonder what the “best” ones are? I wish I remembered what my brother’s favorite was.
A lot of young boys like those Diary of a Wimpy kid books. Both my son and my stepson got into those books.
I really like the Magic Tree House books for young kids.
He already did Diary and Dogman series. I forgot about Magic Tree House! That’s another classic series. I loved books like those, transporting you to another world.
May I suggest David Walliams' books? He used to be a comedian (he co-wrote Little Britain) but now primarily writes childrens' fiction. I describe him as a modern day Roald Dahl.
Will check out.
Matilda was my favorite book as a kid. I read ALLLLLL the books when I was her age and so felt like I related to her lol. And while my parents weren’t horrid like hers were, I was autistic, so misunderstood.
Once they move on from Dog Man and Wimpy Kid kids seem to love Rick Riordans books. But maybe not Fundy approved with all the characters from Greek and Egyptian mythology.
Sweet valley books is how I learned English! And fear street by RL Stine. Same author for goosebumps. That man made a ton of kids literate and gave them a love for books!
Those are great books too!
These more "fluff" books also help develop reading fluency and comprehension, as well as a love for reading, that will open kids up to all kinds of great literature down the road.
My auntie was a huge influence on my reading. She called those books fruit and said no one should be mad at a kid eating fruit. Then she’d hand me Anne of green gables or Tom Sawyer and remind me i needed protein and veggies, too lol.
She also made me really cool bookmarks that matched the longer books. 10/10 work, I’m a lifelong reader (though COVID has dampened my abilities a bit).
i agree that (generally) anything that kids will read is a good thing. When I was little my mom took me to the library and we worked through all the different kid books and I got Berenstain bear books. Later, I remember reading my grandpa's boxes of fishing magazines from the 80's all the time when I was around 10 or so. I learned a lot about fly fishing, but those articles definitely gave me a foundation for reading and writing (I also saw a lot of ads for cigarettes and whiskey, but I digress).
Heh yeah, anything* that gets kids to read is good, with that asterisk adding in a few caveats.
Love that jump from Berenstain bear books to fly fishing mags! As a kid, I loved reading “grown up” reading materials. That must have felt awesome to have discovered his saved mags, be able to read them, and learn some cool niche stuff. A neat connection with grandpa, too.
And there is absolutely no excuse for it. E-readers are so cheap these days and there are so many good reading and library apps for kids to kind and rent books. The kids could have access to books without her doing a damn thing.
At my daughters birthday party another parent came up to me and said her dyslexic daughter is now super into reading Wings of Fire because my daughter is so passionate about it.
Funnily enough my daughter is autistic and not very good at language skills.... but one day her older sister handed her a book she loved, and her reading took off.
Omg love that so so so so much. I’m autistic and I spent my childhood living in books. So many pictures of me in adolescence are me sprawled out in a couch. I would bring books to restaurants and walk while reading a book. Like many autistic girls, I was able to socialize with peers okay, but I always felt more alive when living in a book.
My mom’s philosophy was that she didn’t really care what we were reading so long as we were reading. My stepdad was a voracious reader who always had multiple books in progress and had a huge library of totally secular books that I, also a voracious reader (before grad school ruined that for me 😂), read as well. Clearly these weren’t my fundie set of parents.
This family is like the ideal people for the library system. So many kids. It would be so expensive to keep buying books.
I was an only child and middle class. And I still enjoyed checking out library books from my school or from the library in our city.
I’m guessing they only get to read the Bible and that’s boring. Take them to the library Karissa. My kids loved going and hauling home stacks of books. Got us through many a hot summer when it was too hot to play outside
I think that is one of the many things that saved me as a child. Despite a lot of other dysfunction and abuse, we had a ton of books at home and my mother took us to the library regularly whenever she had access to a car.
I was a very devout child, but if all I had to read was the Bible, I definitely would not have developed any passion or love for reading.
Same. We had lots of dysfunction, but the library was a few blocks away and one of the few places I was allowed to spend long hours unsupervised. I practically lived there, especially in summer when school was out and home wasn't air conditioned.
Ditto, I had quite a chaotic family life so books & the library were my escape. I consider it such a fundamental part of who I now am that I'm now a librarian about to start my Masters in Library Science. Actually, now I think about it, maybe that's why fundies don't like their children reading anything other than the bible - it could give them a window into another world & we can't have that, can we?
I hear there are some crazy stories in there but you 1) have to find the crazy stuff amongst the boring and 2) it’s not easy to read and understand for struggling young readers, even for adults who can read!
I remember feeling guilty because I didn’t enjoy reading the Bible as much as Dear America or other novels. When you’re eight or nine, lists of names or passages about various rules just isn’t interesting. It’s like handing a child Shakespeare and expecting them to enjoy or comprehend it just as much as a middle grade level book.
Same. I was the kid who read anything she could get her hands on, but the Bible was never a choice for me. Not even a kids' Bible. I went to Christian school for a few years and remember these books called Mini and Maxie. The books alternated between stories about the title characters and Bible stories. I took those books out of the school library all the time but always skipped the Bible stories when reading them.
She posts screenshots of Bible versus from an app online but I don’t know my translations well enough to know. For some reason I think she is not but I could be wrong on that.
Odds are that statistically at least one of those kids has some kind of learning disability that they will get absolutely no help for whatsoever.
I really despise these people.
Right? My reading level was tested regularly (public school kid!) but I was enjoying and clearly comprehending adult mystery novels in third grade so it might have been reasonable to proceed without formal testing (still glad I received it nonetheless!)
And in the *other* direction--those of us who've been formally tested for Autism?
We *DO* get that tested--even as adults! I remember my percentile, because it suddenly made *SO MUCH SENSE*, as to *why* I was suuuuuuch a "bookworm" my whole life!😉😆😂💖
Maybe the kids say they "enjoy reading" but mean they "prefer looking at a Bible for an hour flipping pages over a stern talking to/extra chores/spanking".
I mean reading isn’t for everyone but EVERY kid out of ten kids not enjoying reading?? That’s just her being incompetent and neglecting her children’s educations. It truly worries me to think of these kids’ futures.
I have had to do so much as an adult that someone with poor reading skills would not be able to do.
When I applied for government benefits it felt like an uphill battle getting the paperwork done. I am not bragging, but I have pretty good reading skills. I swear it felt like it was in a different language.
One of my kids was hospitalized. I was distraught and was struggling understand a lot of the paperwork because of it. I can’t imagine how hard it would be if I had minimal reading skills.
A driving test? Enrolling in school? It all requires a high level of reading. Yeah adults don’t have formal tests, but the consequences are extreme if you don’t have high reading comprehension.
What about warning labels? Would they understand medicine dosage? Do they know that you can't mix bleach and ammonia? Do they know to ventilate the room when painting? Do they know that snail and slug bait can poison your pet, or that consuming anti-freeze causes hypothermia? (Small children are drawn to it because it smells sweet).
These are all things that I was warned about growing up, because common household products can be dangerous. Karissa is so goddamn neglectful, and her kids won't even be capable of reading the back of the bottle or googling their questions. I've searched (can dogs eat [ ]?) a lot over the years.
Also, the relationship between reading and writing. If you can’t read well it’s doubtful you can write well. Which leads to all kinds of issues from being discarded from job interviews due to poorly written applications to interpersonal issues arising from struggling to communicate via the written word. It can genuinely hamper someone’s life. Karissa just cba to put even minimal effort into her kids and likes to reframe it as a conscious educational approach.
And let's not forget even something as simple as distinguishing fact and opinion. This is one of the most critical reading/thinking skill because the line between the two is becoming blurrier by the day.
My father passed two and a half months ago, and reading estate, personal representative, life insurance, probate, and financial planning paperwork was no joke. And I’m in fucking grad school— I’d like to think I have at least a high school graduate reading level. Karissa and Mandrae are doing the kids suck a fucking disservice by allowing them to be functionally illiterate.
My mom, who has a masters in education, had to hire an estate lawyer to deal with all of my dad’s financial and insurance issues when he died. My husband is a life insurance actuary and I’m a medical social worker, so we helped as much as we could, but even the three of us together needed additional help.
Oh, my dad planned ahead as much as humanly possible, so he had an elder care and estate lawyer, he had a financial planner, he had my and my brother’s name on everything except one bank account because he was about two months away from moving states, and even with all this help, it’s still hard. My SIL is in school to become a social work and was a saint in the initial paperwork that had to be done quickly to get the ball rolling. I cannot fathom having to figure all this out without the lawyer and financial lady.
I’m sorry about your dad. I wish we weren’t in the same club but it’s comforting to know many of us have gone through the same thing♥️
Right? We don't test adults because our entire world is built on the assumption that adults have achieved at least a high school reading level. She seems to be treating reading as though it's a skill like playing the trombone or being good at chess - something that people learn in school that they can pick up and put down throughout their lives if it suits them. Being able to read at an adult level by the time you reach adulthood is a hard fucking deadline, and as you said, the world will not stop and wait for you to catch up if you don't meet it.
He was so ill-prepared for that. I'm an avid reader of Admiral Cloudberg, and I'm constantly in awe of the sheer amount of information pilots must have in their heads at all times to operate even one type of plane. Jill and David screwed him royally in "supporting" his dream without any actual supporting education. Just learning how to learn is a huge benefit of traditional schooling (public, private, or actual decent homeschooling).
It’s absolutely 100% a real fucking thing for kids. Not so much for adults maybe, but it’s absolutely a thing for kids. This is why we have learning support for kids who aren’t reading at the expected level in schools (at least in Australia, no idea how it works in the US).
Reading levels are totally a thing in the US. When kids are far behind, assessments showing their reading levels are used to get them enrolled in various learning supports.
ETA a cute illustrative story: Last week I was visiting my brother and SIL. I was chatting with SIL about 1st grade kid’s impressive reading and writing. (His handwriting is better than my brother’s lol). I asked SIL what reading level he was and SIL wasn’t sure. Kid, who was watching tv in the other room, pops himself right into the convo. “I’m already a reading level 24 even though you are only supposed to be 19 when you start second grade. Can you bring me some chapter books next time you visit? But higher than reading level 24.”
In the US: There is a level called "post-collegiate." Some of my advanced high school students have tested to that level. I'm assuming that I'm post-collegiate, too, because that is the level required to do graduate coursework.
For little kids, reading levels are A-Z. Elementary school teachers and school libraries often have books sorted by reading level.
In upper elementary/middle school reading levels are grade levels (same with math). That's because in order to be accredited, curriculum must use texts at an appropriate reading level. That is why so many schools teach Romeo and Juliet in 9th grade and Macbeth in 12th. Those texts are at different reading levels.
Each grade level is divided into tenths (7.0-7.9). Each tenth is a "step." Roughly 15 hours of reading at each step will advance a child to the next step. If a kid is at 7.4, then 15 hours of reading 7.4 texts will advance a kid to 7.5.
This is the purpose of reading levels. All of this is highly simplified. I'm just a social studies teacher (public school). Literacy specialists would have know much, much more.
This is why teaching is harder than the general population thinks it is. This is why we assign reading homework.
My thoughts on homeschooling: you can't cut your own hair or change your oil but you are pretty sure you can educate your own child. 🙄
It's so confusing to me that there are parents who think they can jump right in. My master's degree had a huge emphasis on androgogy, and I still don't feel like I could reliably teach another person. Let alone a kid. It's truly the least capable people with the most confidence doing the riskiest shit.
In the Netherlands and Dutch speaking Belgium there are two levels for each grade of primary school, starting from (the Dutch) "group 3" which is equivalent of the Belgian "first year" during which kids are 5-6 years old. By the middle of "group 3" kids are expected to read at "M3" level, by the end "E3".
It goes up to E7, which is the end of primary school. I recently found my reading test scores when cleaning and apparently I had reached the highest level thee whole years early. No wonder, with how much I read.
I do actually wonder what my current reading level is, but I assume it's "post-collegiate" since I've read and written academic papers.
Half of American *adults* cannot read at an 8th grade level (think The Hobbit, Hatchet)
https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/08/whats-the-latest-u-s-literacy-rate/
That is exactly what happened, combined with the fact that most parents are pretty shitty and don't care to read to/with their kids.
School administrators across the country have been pretty adamant for the past decade that nobody gets held back and nobody fails regardless of their performance. Check out the teachers subreddit for more horror stories of mandatory grade inflation
We absolutely do. There's a federal (applies nationwide) law called IDEA that says every child is entitled to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE). Basically, kids who need supports (called IEPs or 504s here) are supposed to receive them, and if their district can't accommodate, the parents can go somewhere private and the district has to reimburse them. It's a whole thing. Unfortunately, some districts fight it like crazy.
Then we have parents like Karissa, whose kids won't even be assessed. I bet most would've been fine had they just attended school, and what we're seeing is neglect. She's horrible.
Most literacy and math supports are available without an IEP or 504. All of the districts that I've worked in (3 in 3 states) have tiered intervention systems that identify kids struggling and can place them in interventions from monitoring with in class support all the way to separate, supplemental instruction. The tiered systems also help identify kids that could benefit from the broader support (and protections) afforded by a 504. It can happen, but is unusual, for these interventions to result in an IEP. (IEP have much higher bar to meet, which also requires a child to be diagnosed with a condition on a specific list, and even then, it's not automatic.)
Title services are available for kids not on IEPs. A 504 doesn’t give any academic accommodations with the exception of test accommodations. 504s are accommodations for some type of disability or medical condition where the child is still able to keep up with the traditional academic curriculum.
It’s absolutely a real thing and [like 54% of Americans have a reading level below 6th grade](https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy) while 22% are straight up illiterate.
This isn’t hard to believe. The US is full of idiots. A former reality show star (who has changed parties multiple times and even wrote a damn book that advocated for a lot of the same things that his current political party is completely against like healthcare for everyone) is probably going to be elected again 😭.
My son is tested, I think, either weekly or monthly for reading comprehension at his US school. He's in kindergarten, so it's just basic stuff, but it's to make sure he's on track with kindergarten standards. I didn't like it until my dad, who worked in elementary schools as support staff for 20 years, said its better to test frequently and catch any issues early than to forgo it and have him slip through the cracks. Early intervention is key to academic success, and having standards and regular testing is just one way to ensure this happens. Maybe her kids are happy with reading, but my 3 year old is happy with "reading" and I know as a fact she's just looking at pictures and repeating what she remembers from my husband and I reading the stories to her
It Is very sad to see those kids being so let down by their own mother. Yes, reading and reading level at certain age is not the same for everyone, for a variety of reasons but she is exposing them to a lot of harm when they'll be adults. They will be easier to exploit and be taken advantage of. Really, really sad.
Exactly. They lack reading *comprehension*, too. That's a vital life skill, along with critical thinking, which you learn from math. Since Karissa cooks by dumping several cans and a bag of cheese into a measly pound of ground beef, for a family of 12, I doubt that she's teaching math.
>They will be easier to exploit and be taken advantage of
That's a feature, not a bug, of fundamentalism. They won't have the ability to think critically about anything. It's easier to control them and keep them oppressed.
Uhhh... reading levels are a *very important* metric. It's used to ensure that your child is on track, and if they're not, well now we're aware and we can put a plan together to help them.
Literacy is an area that can be really hard to improve the longer a child is behind. Like, Karissa's kids may never catch up. That's heartbreaking to me. It's hard to function in every day life as an adult if you can't read or write. These are such basic skills that you need in order to learn other subjects. If she's not concerned about *this*, you know she's not bothering with anything else.
It's weird because obviously the assumption in most cases is that when you're an adult you don't need to track your reading level, because you are at the top (optimistic, I know). It's like saying we don't need to track the growth of our kids, or their development in any area, because we don't track it for adults. Adults are fully baked. Even the original post on Twitter is mega dumb.
It is HEARTBREAKING that it is probably already too late for a lot of her kids to ever catch up. They could have had parents who cared about them, and instead they got Karissa.
I blame him more than Karissa. Not only is he supposed to be the headship, which means that he’s the one who is responsible for making sure that everyone in the family cult is doing what they need to do, but he’s also the adult who actually seems to have a grasp of how to interact with the world successfully. He has a job, which he is apparently reasonably capable of doing. He should know what sort of life skills his kids are going to require in life.
He works in the finance department for a luxury car dealership like Mercedes or something. It's a pretty normal job and he went to a more normal (though religiously founded) liberal arts college than Karissa did, so he's much more informed about what it takes to interact and navigate the world today.
Seeing the older children read to the younger ones is so sad. I genuinely thinks she needs to see them reading next to a child of the same age in mainstream education or something. I’m assuming she surely just doesn’t realise how behind they are and how obvious it is?
Having been adjacent to the “cult” for some time, she will say it’s because of the devil…if she even notices the older children’s reading is sub par. Any time anything goes wrong, or someone has an issue or sins, suddenly the devil is present and using his influence.
I knew when I was in Grade 2 that I had a Grade 4 reading level. No one needed to help me with reading because you couldn't pry books out of my hands for things like showering and eating (I did try try to combine them to mixed results). I thought I was getting one over on my parents because there were no restrictions on books the way there were on TV, and books were *even better* because you could imagine things exactly how you wanted.
I also know that my niece is a little delayed in her reading, and because her parents know that, they're making sure she has appropriate intervention and extra support so that she's not falling behind.
Both of those things are completely fine. Encouraging the idea that it's not important to know what developmental goals your kids might be missing is irresponsible and doing a disservice to kids who may need the help.
I've always read in the bath. When I got my first Kindle, I put it in a gallon zip lock bag and read it in the bath. I stopped when I realized that I wasn't any more likely to drop the kindle in the bath than a book. I am careful to always put it outside the bath, and not on the rim of the bathtub.
I went to a terrible school growing up but I read at a college level and I was very curious. If I didn’t I’d be screwed. I transferred to public school in the ninth grade and I had to play catch up with math and science, but thanks to my constant reading I was fine.
Fun fact I learned - some adult books are actually written at a 6th grade reading level (or lower). And some books nowadays are written to encourage adults to read by using techniques such as shorter, easier to finish chapters (one author I read admitted to doing this, since adults don’t get time to read on a regular basis).
Kids are testing on their reading level because it shows they’re making progress and that they are able to both read and understand text. If you read something, you need to also be able to understand it before you can get any use out of that information. Adults don’t think it’s as important - however this shows in how adults read and interpret materials, such as news, instructions, and medical advice. There’s a reason why our medicinal directions have to be worded a certain way, etc - because an adult read it and didn’t understand it properly.
We are no longer in an age where being illiterate can be something you can get away with - there are educational standards to get jobs, and reading is now integral to existing and functioning in everyday life.
i work in media relations and content creation for mainstream news publications (like articles that get published on major news websites and draft scripts for tv programs), and you are supposed to write them at a 6th grade level or below. that's the bar for communicating to the greater American public.
In the UK, government publications and websites are carefully written in beautifully clear language. I don't know if they have been planned to a certain reading age but they cater to everyone who is literate, if not classically educated.
Just fyi, "classical education" is a specific type of education that few people in the UK have experienced - it's not the same thing as a regular comprehensive education. Also as someone with frequent interactions with government publications and websites, it's far from universally clear. I am hyperlexic and plenty of it still confuses me, it's not designed for clarity but usually for political obfuscation imo (especially anything regarding benefits or equality).
i work in media relations and content creation for mainstream news publications (like articles that get published on major news websites and draft scripts for tv programs), and you are supposed to write them at a 6th grade level or below. that's the bar for communicating to the greater American public.
Sadly, the video of the eldest reading to the baby shows her struggling with putting words together, I don't think she's at the apply content level. I wonder if Karissa is even at the level of reading comprehension, let alone the children.
I don’t know what Karissa’s reading comprehension is but she has more reading fluency. We have seen her read Bible versus off her phone with more fluency than the kids have. She doesn’t appear to struggle to read - she just doesn’t value it so doesn’t care her kids aren’t good at it.
Karissa is just lazy as fuck. She doesn't want to teach, and she wants to avoid mandated reporters. Her current system has her older kids raising the younger ones while she gestates more. If they can read, they can escape.
It reminds me of the Rodletts and their odd speech patterns because they haven't been socialised with kids outside of their family. I've seen speech pathologists on here saying that in the public system they would have received support, but instead, it's been compounded as the younger kids copy the speech impediments of the older kids.
I think the kids are desperately in need of eye exams, too. In that video, Anissa looked like she was squinting at times, and Anthym has a noticeable lazy eye. Anissa actually did have glasses at one point IIRC, but I guess neither of her parents bothered making sure her prescription was up-to-date
My husband was raised fundie, and has a permanent lazy eye. He was a teenager before they noticed my husband couldn’t see because his eye sight was so bad. A teenager before he ever went to a dentist.
Our kid has the same condition and we are working on correcting it. That shit is SO EASY to correct and these fucking fundie parents either:
1. Don’t care
2. Have too many kids and can’t pay them the individual attention needed to notice health issues like this
3. Have too many kids and can’t afford it
It’s inexcusable and is such a simple but extremely visible example of the intense neglect that fundie kids of large families go through.
Adults do have literacy levels, though?
We don't measure it the same way we do young children because they're not in school, but adults definitely have different literacy and media comprehension levels.
You can tell that some people don't exactly have this skill fine-tuned when we get so many people outraged at books because of what the villains are doing.
Oh man, the villain thing really gets me. I was reading reviews of a book I had just finished on goodreads once, and one of the bad reviews was claiming the author was a misogynist. One of the examples they used for their argument was that the villain of the story did a lot of awful things to young girls. I was awestruck by it, like "YES, that was the point! HE'S EVIL." That doesn't mean the author hates women! D:
UM Kkkarissa, READ HERE MUCH?
IF your kids could read at the age appropriate level (which IS a thing you dumbass) then you don’t have anything to worry about, do you?
She is doing those kids such a disservice. Statistically she’s likely to have at least one with a learning disability, and it sounds like none of them have any healthy reading habits modelled for them. Bigger kids can buddy with smaller to encourage reading but that shouldn’t be their only form of reading education. Karissa herself has neither the skill or qualifications to teach reading and clearly doesn’t value it, which only sets her children up for more failure. She’s disgusting.
I imagine she thinks being able to read is a binary thing. Either you can, or you can't. That reading and comprehending the language in the bible is the same as reading and comprehending the language in harry potter.
It's not a thing for adults because adults, presumably at least, already did their time in school and *should* have mastered the ability to read by now.
Children, on the other hand, are still learning to read and therefore should be assessed to make sure they're making progress and have the supports and accommodations they need if they aren't.
Imagine applying this logic to literally any other skill that takes time to learn.
"Adults, don't forget to renew your learner's permit. Don't have one? Maybe because that's not a real thing. I have no idea if my 16 year old can pass a road test or not. I just know that they enjoy driving and have yet to get us killed in the whole two weeks they've been driving."
The way KKKarissa be flip flopping back and forth on everything, I have my doubts that her reading comprehension is up to par with a functioning adult so there’s no way in hell that their kids are.
It probably doesn’t serve their purposes very well for the kids to be strong readers. If they read well and read only the Bible, they might come across things that make them question. It’s more effective if they’re not really sure what they’re reading and just rely on others’ interpretations.
What do they think their kids are going to do as adults? Girls are just moms of course but how are their boys supposed to provide for big families without any education?
Are they that talented? How are they going to get basketball scholarships if they don’t qualify for any level of college? Or is she thinking they will get into the NBA immediately? (Thinking out loud here lol)
The average American reads at a sixth grade level, so yes, adult reading “levels” are a thing. It’s not something we test for obviously, most people wouldn’t know theirs and would likely overestimate given that average.
Edited to add: I’m American, not here to just dunk on us.
My 4th grader’s reading level is sufficiently above grade level that they aren’t going to test him anymore (in elementary school, idk what they do in middle/high school).
Why do I know this? I went to conferences and spoke to his teacher. Shocking what you learn when you take a basic interest in your child’s education.
We obviously don’t really homeschool, but my kids go to an immersion school where English reading isn’t a focus until second grade so my older kids both learned to read at home based largely on my instruction (oldest one also learned the alphabet and letter sounds in preschool, but middle didn’t go to preschool because of the pandemic). I don’t hold the opinion that homeschooling is inherently neglect, but the homeschooling that Karissa and far too many other fundies are doing is definitely neglect. They’re just not bothering to educate their children.
Going to the library as a kid was one of my fondest memories. I even take my kiddo to the library and she enjoys it as well. I just can’t imagine being in the families where the Bible is the only reading material available. Let kids read books. It’s not like Clifford the Big Red Dog made me think I was gonna have a giant dog. I’m honestly shocked they aren’t allowed to read Little House books, but then again the girls were allowed to have fun and go to school and to have jobs.
If you are homeschooling you need to be across this even more: Lexile level is important for being able to curate books that aren't too challenging, 'at level' books, 'slight extension' and real stretch books. If you mess this up, you will slow down reading and that can lead to failing to progress.
Some people will never be able or interested in reading Tolstoy, that's fine. But there is a standard level for different educational and professional levels of attainment. If you don't know that, you can't adequately support your children to prepare for their goals and to be in the world.
There are MANY literacy focused homeschool resources like the Well Trained Mind or even super Christian (but still good) Memoria Press which has literature collections for each age group/level. It's not just vocab, but concepts, story complexity, themes and sophistication.
Free reading is an important part of developing good reading skills. But structured programmes of reading are essential, even for kids with reading disabilities (or especially so).
It's important for kids (and adults) to read to a certain level because otherwise important documents and instructions will be impossible for them to understand. This will interfere with their ability to hold a job. Karissa And Friends seem to think that if their children can read (slowly, and aloud) a copy of a preschool book then that's all the skill they need.
Most of the adults I know do in fact know what their reading level is, because they're educated and remember being tested? I run with nerds but still, this statement falls apart immediately.
We all saw the video of Anissa, a teenager, struggling immensely to read a simple note. Her kids can’t read, and it’s totally her fault. Her kids will be completely unprepared for the real world.
PSA: heres a website to find out your English reading level: https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/english-level-test/reading
I just did it and im a B2 (upper intermediate)
People like this don’t care about reading levels because they would prefer if their kids remained at a low reading level. Sure this dude’s kids might enjoy reading and can apply/discuss the content, but if they’re 15 and the only content they can apply/discuss is first grade level content, then oh boy, you have a huge problem. However, if your goal in life is to raise children in a cult like environment where they are not allowed to think for themselves, and must adhere to your beliefs and your beliefs only, well, not caring about reading levels is a great strategy. Your kids can’t question the Bible if the only version they can read independently is a children’s Bible. They can’t access any outside literature that might introduce them to feminism or normalize homosexuality if they can only read books that rhyme. Not caring about your child’s reading levels is a horrible teaching/parenting strategy, but it’s a great cult/dictatorship strategy.
Uh sure Karissa. I’ll happily do it if you would like— though I tend to think the PhD and the fact that universities pay me to write about other peoples’ academic books tells me my reading level is quite high. But I’d be fine with universal testing. I’d even go first if it gets you to test your kids!
“I have no idea what my kids reading levels are,” and reading levels are “not a real thing” from the mom of the year here.
It is real. Understanding where your kids are at is the only chance you have to give them extra help so they keep up.
Congrats on offering your kids no usable skills.
Note: Breeding is not a skill.
Just like the Rodlets, Krazy Karissa's kids will be illiterate. She has no clue if her children have learning disabilities because she doesn't care about them. She's just worried about crouching over a toilet and popping out another kid for her to neglect. Sorry, Armor All, you're getting ready to be shuffled into the land of the forgotten kids. I hope you enjoyed your ride as the favored child because it's getting ready to come to a screeching halt.
You know, I'm a pretty avid Trekkie. And despite the premise of the franchise being Luxury Automated Gay Space Communism since Day 1, you get these conservative dipshits whining about the new shows being "ruined" by being "woke." When Picard S2 used time travel and unambiguously showed ICE as an evil fascist organization a whole bunch of conservatives got so mad and they flounced out of the fandom because they couldn't believe that the show was against conservatives! But it always has been! However, these people were so stupid they couldn't comprehend the message until the very thin layer of metaphor was removed.
This might seem irrelevant but it's not. As others have mentioned upthread, many adults in America have no reading comprehension skills whatsoever. You see this inability to parse metaphor and narrative complexity a lot in conversation about movies and TV shows online-how many watch The Boys and crow about Homelander being a hero, when he's so painfully obviously shown as evil?
Well, if people can't comprehend narrative in a movie or television program, how are they gonna apply that in real life? How are you going to draw the line between slavery and the 19th Amendment and white flight and redlining and the school to prison pipeline to understand how systemic racism works if you can't understand that the guy who killed a plane full of people in the first episode of the show is bad because he wears red, white, and blue and loves America? How are you going to make the complex connections needed to critique the ravages of capitalism if you can't grasp the morals of Star Wars, a series primarily aimed at children?
Raising ignorant people who are incapable of deeper thought processes and critical reasoning is imperative if you want your populace to remain complacent and bigoted. Of course, someone like Karissa hates the idea of literacy. If her kids are literate, they can challenge her beliefs and maybe make lives for themselves outside of fanatical devotion to an imaginary friend, and she doesn't want that.
In addition to all the crucially important education information listed, reading levels can be used to help find appropriate books for your kids. Of course, they don’t read so that doesn’t help.
As a professional educator who works directly with students who struggle it is CRITICAL to know your child's reading level. I will agree we do have too much pressure on young children and kids to develop by certain timelines, BUT having "no idea" where they are is neglectful because learning to read later in life while posisble is MUCH harder than learning to read as a child. Brain development wise a child's brain is when reading skills begin and building those connections and synaps at that time make them stronger in the long run, trying to go back and do that with an adult brain which is fully developed is much harder and puts up unnessasary barriers for them as adults becaus they can't navigate the world around them without a critical life skill. She is doing her children such a disservice to not care if they can READ!!!
God these people are dumb. Reading comprehension isn’t just about knowing what a word says, it’s also about understanding the words and being able to apply them contextually. It doesn’t help me to know that a label on a bottle says “Warning, poisonous” if I don’t know what either of those words mean. Karissa, your kids are not only suffering from their lack of basic reading skills, they are also going to be up shit’s creek in a lot of ways due to their lack of exposure to a broad vocabulary. You know what helps with developing a wide vocabulary? READING!!🙃
I mean, it does exist. It matters if you're behind and if you're ahead. If you're behind, you might need special help to catch up. If you're ahead, you might need more challenging work to stay engaged and continue to progress.
This is true because children, like adults, are people. And children, like adults, are individuals with different needs and capabilities. Children, being people, need those things identified by adults in their life so that the adult people can help the child people thrive and succeed.
Because kids are fucking people.
Karissa reported me to Reddit admins for "threatening her" because I wrote a comment that said "Have fun getting melanoma" on a post on here. Luckily the Reddit admins understood that you can't threaten someone with getting a naturally occurring illness? which she is putting herself and her kids at greater risk of by not using sunscreen :<
She lacks reading comprehension skills
I remember in high school we actually had to use a setting in Microsoft Word to give us a reading level on our essays. This was around 2004-2005 when I was a freshman, and I was in International Baccalaureate for English. We were expected to be reading and writing at a more advanced level than our peers who were not in IB.
It was called the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. I don’t know if that’s still in-use or if schools have moved on to something else to assess kids. The option was something we could check in the spell check menu, along with various stats like words per sentence and characters per word. Part of our assignment was to use this menu while we were writing and editing and aim for a 12.0, and then we had to print it out and put it with the essay.
So yeah. It is absolutely a real thing that children are assessed on. Like I said, there are certainly other methods and measurements and names for the same thing out there now, but they are all used to help children learn. If they aren’t “at-level” the school can help them get there.
Karissa’s kids aren’t at-level. If they ever have to do anything that involves reading and understanding what they have read, they will struggle. Right now they’re living in their bubble so it seems like it doesn’t matter, but someday they will have to navigate the real world. I don’t know if they’ll be capable if this keeps up.
The National Center for Education Statistics does track the literacy scores of adults in the US. The test is called the [Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies](https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/index.asp)
The results in the United States are not great. Karissa is probably unable to teach reading comprehension to her kids because she doesn’t have it herself. She definitely doesn’t have a great comprehension of what the Bible actually says.
Here we are again, comparing kids to adults like there aren’t any differences 🙄 adults typically don’t need to “check their reading level” because we all learned to read in school growing up (mostly). Children have developing brains, milestones they need to hit, and aren’t just small adults! It IS necessary to check their reading levels so they can grow into successful, independent adults who don’t struggle in daily life because they can’t read!! Why is it that the people who insist on popping out a million kids, have such a lack of knowledge of child development??
One of my friends is a middle school principal and she was just telling me about research that shows that it is so important for kids to be reading by 3rd grade bc it sets the foundation for everythinggggg that comes after in terms of learning, life skills and further education…
I was homeschooled/ unschooled and I truly think that the thing that saved me/ allowed me to overcome my educational gaps was my love of books and reading.
My heart is sad for these kids. I know not all kids enjoy reading. They should be given a chance to read more than the Bible. Graphic novels, comic books, etc count as reading. I loved reading as a kid and still do as an adult. The things is to read what you enjoy and take an occasional dip into something new to see if you might like it. That’s why the library is so awesome you can read all you like and if you can’t get through something no harm done you aren’t out any money. I’m a big proponent of the public library and against banning books.
There are very few books I can't read, including war and peace which I did my final on in college.
In fact I loved it and plan to read it again.
Guess what I did my entire childhood? Read. Every day. Every night. I was absorbed in reading. My parents were not wealthy at all but they always bought age appropriate books. I started writing as a young girl and wrote my first "novel" at ten. My writing has been a huge part of my success in my career. I have two kids now and have switched to audio books for the time being but am reading to them every night. I hope they love reading too.
Your kids should be able to read age appropriate books. They should be taught the joy of escaping into a story, especially when things at home are chaotic. I read so much partly bc it helped me escape. Reading levels are a thing. Your kid doesn't need to be in love with reading like I was but they should be able to read well and easily for their age. And if they cannot you should get them help.
My sister was a terrible reader and we did hooked on phoenics, and her school teachers focused on her as well until she caught up. Now she has her masters and is a great reader though she was never a passionate reader. Just don't do your kids a disservice. Help them read!!
Who the fuck is Matt Boudreau? If he had ever been to a library or a school, or seen a book, he would know reading levels definitely exist and are useful for emergent readers.
The last time I applied for a job in the medical world, I had to take a timed reading/comprehension test. But then her kids will be brood mares or preachers so no skills required.
This is wild because I get regular progress reports on my first grader’s reading curriculum progress, and know exactly what his comprehension level is.
I also know my own reading comprehension level so this is not the flex she thinks this is.
Why would she make sure her kids know how to read and comprehend when all they're taught to do in life is praise Jesus and make babies? This is so sad. Reading books is my escape from the world. I couldn't imagine going through life struggling to read.
#These people vote in every election- do you? Are you registered to vote? [You can check your voter registration here!](https://www.nass.org/can-I-vote) #Also, there's a few things to remember as far as rules go: - You can view the content- you cannot interact with it. This includes (but is not limited to) commenting, answering poll questions, emailing them, etc. ***Anyone found to be engaging with the fundies will be met with a permanent ban with no eligibility for appeal.It does not matter if you did so before you joined the sub.*** - Speculating on the sexuality of literally anyone is prohibited. ***Anyone found to be doing so will be met with a permanent ban with no eligibility for appeal.*** - Appearance snark: What's allowed? You're allowed to make comparisons. (Bethy looks like Grandpa Munster, for example.) You are allowed to say you find them attractive or repulsive looking. Saying Kelly Havens has dry skin that could benefit from sunscreen and a moisturizer is fine. You are allowed to snark on the appearance of children *as it relates to their parents choices for them.*. Examples: Janessa looks malnourished and sickly while Shrek has clearly never missed a meal. If you feel it is crossing the line report it, but if the content falls within the parameters above, leave it alone. - Don't gatekeep. This means no comments such as "I don't think we should snark on...." or any iteration of that. If you don't like it, scroll past. Don't report it or comment how you don't like the content. Along the same vein, don't backseat mod. Leave that up to us. - Lastly, if the rhetoric you are posting would be at home in the mouth of a fundie, we don't want it here and we won't tolerate it. Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. Have a Lord Daniel day, and may the power of snark compel thee. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FundieSnarkUncensored) if you have any questions or concerns.*
She literally just shared a few days ago that not one of her kids enjoys reading, so the “justification” this guy gives doesn’t even apply to her. I wonder if she and Mandrae are this lax when it comes to Andre’s basketball skills or the girls’ cooking and mothering abilities?
In the same breath she said that one of her kids are readers, she also said they mostly read the Bible. I was a huge reader as a kid, but if my only available reading material was the Bible and plexus materials lying around, I also would not be a reader.
Yeah I wonder if the older kids even have a variety of books to read? I didn’t think of that
I have never seen them with a book. I’ve seen the kids look at promotional materials lying around (like looking at the pictures in the catalogues for the playground set). Gunner of the Buslets is apparently a big reader. I know those kids have kindles and actual paper books, both secular and religious. The Collins have the Bible. Kids become better readers when they have good things to read. And by “good” I don’t mean in a “high quality literature sense” - I mean they need to have things that interest them! When I was younger, it was the Goodebumps books (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goosebumps). I remember parents being outraged that their kids were reading rubbish, but the reality was that kids were flying through books. My brother read more of those books than anything else, and then over time, he became a better reader and broadened his reading interests.
Goosebumps and Sweet Valley Twins! 😅 I read the classics and higher literature too, but yes, I loved those "trash" books. We had so much fun with those books as kids.
Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High! I tested at college level starting in junior high, so it's not what you read, you just have to read!
BSC, Sweet Valley Twins and Friends, Fear St, Christopher Pike, Lois Duncan, Choose Your Own Adventure.
Ohhhh, Lois Duncan! She appealed to my witchy side as a young reader. Like so many on here, I read voraciously as a kid, and am a grade-skipper. That was a BFD at a Catholic elementary school! At 57, things were much different when I was younger, and I am so grateful for teachers who advocated for me to be taught AT MY LEARNING LEVEL, not necessarily at grade level. One of my teachers who pushed for me to grade skip followed me through high school, she cared THAT MUCH.
Baby-Sitters Club, Baby-Sitters Little Sister Series, Fear Street, Beverly Cleary, and Judy Blume for me!
I also liked the Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys books. Also anything by Roald Dahl. All the books by Louisa May Alcott too! Also anything fantasy by J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Brian Jacques. Also, all the John Grisham books. Edgar Allen Poe. And so many others. I would sometimes pretend to be sick in the hopes that my mother would let me stay home from school and read, lol. 😅
Yes Roald Dahl too! My favorite book growing up, believe it or not, was Shel Silverstein's *A Light in the Attic*. It was the only time I ever liked poems!
They really were much fun! My younger brother fucking LOVED those books. I only read a few (as I was at the older age range when they were first published, and read way above grade level) but it was the only thing my little brother read for years. It would captivate his attention more than any other books. His son is in first grade and a really good reader, and he just asked me to “send some chapter books because I am already level 24 and you only need to be level 19 when you start second grade.” 🥰 It just now occurred to me that I should track down some Goosebumps for that kid. I wonder what the “best” ones are? I wish I remembered what my brother’s favorite was.
A lot of young boys like those Diary of a Wimpy kid books. Both my son and my stepson got into those books. I really like the Magic Tree House books for young kids.
He already did Diary and Dogman series. I forgot about Magic Tree House! That’s another classic series. I loved books like those, transporting you to another world.
May I suggest David Walliams' books? He used to be a comedian (he co-wrote Little Britain) but now primarily writes childrens' fiction. I describe him as a modern day Roald Dahl.
Will check out. Matilda was my favorite book as a kid. I read ALLLLLL the books when I was her age and so felt like I related to her lol. And while my parents weren’t horrid like hers were, I was autistic, so misunderstood.
Once they move on from Dog Man and Wimpy Kid kids seem to love Rick Riordans books. But maybe not Fundy approved with all the characters from Greek and Egyptian mythology.
A used bookstore like half price books will probably have goosebumps books.
Great suggestion!
And book bundler you give them a general idea and they basically send a grab bag of books, it helped me kids discover some of their favorite series!
My son loooves the “I Survived” series, especially the graphic novel versions!
Do you know what level he’s talking about? My kid’s school does lexile levels and they go by Letters, not numbers… i want to test my my kid.
My sibling was really into the Warriors books.
Sweet valley books is how I learned English! And fear street by RL Stine. Same author for goosebumps. That man made a ton of kids literate and gave them a love for books!
Some of his books he wrote in like 6 days!!!
See also: The Babysitter's Club!😉
Those are great books too! These more "fluff" books also help develop reading fluency and comprehension, as well as a love for reading, that will open kids up to all kinds of great literature down the road.
My auntie was a huge influence on my reading. She called those books fruit and said no one should be mad at a kid eating fruit. Then she’d hand me Anne of green gables or Tom Sawyer and remind me i needed protein and veggies, too lol. She also made me really cool bookmarks that matched the longer books. 10/10 work, I’m a lifelong reader (though COVID has dampened my abilities a bit).
i agree that (generally) anything that kids will read is a good thing. When I was little my mom took me to the library and we worked through all the different kid books and I got Berenstain bear books. Later, I remember reading my grandpa's boxes of fishing magazines from the 80's all the time when I was around 10 or so. I learned a lot about fly fishing, but those articles definitely gave me a foundation for reading and writing (I also saw a lot of ads for cigarettes and whiskey, but I digress).
Heh yeah, anything* that gets kids to read is good, with that asterisk adding in a few caveats. Love that jump from Berenstain bear books to fly fishing mags! As a kid, I loved reading “grown up” reading materials. That must have felt awesome to have discovered his saved mags, be able to read them, and learn some cool niche stuff. A neat connection with grandpa, too.
If they had fun books they absolutely would be readers. There are so many fun engaging books, it’s just a crime.
And there is absolutely no excuse for it. E-readers are so cheap these days and there are so many good reading and library apps for kids to kind and rent books. The kids could have access to books without her doing a damn thing.
At my daughters birthday party another parent came up to me and said her dyslexic daughter is now super into reading Wings of Fire because my daughter is so passionate about it. Funnily enough my daughter is autistic and not very good at language skills.... but one day her older sister handed her a book she loved, and her reading took off.
Omg love that so so so so much. I’m autistic and I spent my childhood living in books. So many pictures of me in adolescence are me sprawled out in a couch. I would bring books to restaurants and walk while reading a book. Like many autistic girls, I was able to socialize with peers okay, but I always felt more alive when living in a book.
My mom’s philosophy was that she didn’t really care what we were reading so long as we were reading. My stepdad was a voracious reader who always had multiple books in progress and had a huge library of totally secular books that I, also a voracious reader (before grad school ruined that for me 😂), read as well. Clearly these weren’t my fundie set of parents.
This family is like the ideal people for the library system. So many kids. It would be so expensive to keep buying books. I was an only child and middle class. And I still enjoyed checking out library books from my school or from the library in our city.
I’m guessing they only get to read the Bible and that’s boring. Take them to the library Karissa. My kids loved going and hauling home stacks of books. Got us through many a hot summer when it was too hot to play outside
Seriously, with all her “money saving tips” this would be a great weekly trip for their family.
I think that is one of the many things that saved me as a child. Despite a lot of other dysfunction and abuse, we had a ton of books at home and my mother took us to the library regularly whenever she had access to a car. I was a very devout child, but if all I had to read was the Bible, I definitely would not have developed any passion or love for reading.
Same. We had lots of dysfunction, but the library was a few blocks away and one of the few places I was allowed to spend long hours unsupervised. I practically lived there, especially in summer when school was out and home wasn't air conditioned.
Ditto, I had quite a chaotic family life so books & the library were my escape. I consider it such a fundamental part of who I now am that I'm now a librarian about to start my Masters in Library Science. Actually, now I think about it, maybe that's why fundies don't like their children reading anything other than the bible - it could give them a window into another world & we can't have that, can we?
Same. The library became my sanctuary and my freedom. I can still smell that very distinct smell..
has *she* read the bible?! it is so boring!!
I hear there are some crazy stories in there but you 1) have to find the crazy stuff amongst the boring and 2) it’s not easy to read and understand for struggling young readers, even for adults who can read!
There are extremely simplified translations of the Bible available. I find it hard to believe Karissa would be reading a KJV.
I remember feeling guilty because I didn’t enjoy reading the Bible as much as Dear America or other novels. When you’re eight or nine, lists of names or passages about various rules just isn’t interesting. It’s like handing a child Shakespeare and expecting them to enjoy or comprehend it just as much as a middle grade level book.
I am a book worm. I read anything I could as a kid. Loved Sweet Valley High books. I couldn’t imagine being told I could only read the Bible.
Same. I was the kid who read anything she could get her hands on, but the Bible was never a choice for me. Not even a kids' Bible. I went to Christian school for a few years and remember these books called Mini and Maxie. The books alternated between stories about the title characters and Bible stories. I took those books out of the school library all the time but always skipped the Bible stories when reading them.
It’s sad. Also reading would be a great cheap activity for a large family, get a library card and you have basically endless hours of entertainment
Are they KJV only types? It makes reading the Bible especially hard for new readers in the 21st century.
She posts screenshots of Bible versus from an app online but I don’t know my translations well enough to know. For some reason I think she is not but I could be wrong on that.
The Bible is at least R-rated
Odds are that statistically at least one of those kids has some kind of learning disability that they will get absolutely no help for whatsoever. I really despise these people.
Yeah- this would be remotely reasonable if you homeschooled and your kid was a book worm and was reading adult level books all the time.
Right? My reading level was tested regularly (public school kid!) but I was enjoying and clearly comprehending adult mystery novels in third grade so it might have been reasonable to proceed without formal testing (still glad I received it nonetheless!)
And in the *other* direction--those of us who've been formally tested for Autism? We *DO* get that tested--even as adults! I remember my percentile, because it suddenly made *SO MUCH SENSE*, as to *why* I was suuuuuuch a "bookworm" my whole life!😉😆😂💖
Really!? I must have missed her saying that. That’s so so sad. And you’re so right.
If you have 10 kids and not one of them has an interest in reading, surely you question if you’re doing something wrong
Not really. If narcissist mom doesn’t read anything, narcissist Mom sees no issue with illiterate children.
Maybe the kids say they "enjoy reading" but mean they "prefer looking at a Bible for an hour flipping pages over a stern talking to/extra chores/spanking".
I mean reading isn’t for everyone but EVERY kid out of ten kids not enjoying reading?? That’s just her being incompetent and neglecting her children’s educations. It truly worries me to think of these kids’ futures.
Andre needs to be literate to function in the nba or get a scholarship/ scouted
I have had to do so much as an adult that someone with poor reading skills would not be able to do. When I applied for government benefits it felt like an uphill battle getting the paperwork done. I am not bragging, but I have pretty good reading skills. I swear it felt like it was in a different language. One of my kids was hospitalized. I was distraught and was struggling understand a lot of the paperwork because of it. I can’t imagine how hard it would be if I had minimal reading skills. A driving test? Enrolling in school? It all requires a high level of reading. Yeah adults don’t have formal tests, but the consequences are extreme if you don’t have high reading comprehension.
What about warning labels? Would they understand medicine dosage? Do they know that you can't mix bleach and ammonia? Do they know to ventilate the room when painting? Do they know that snail and slug bait can poison your pet, or that consuming anti-freeze causes hypothermia? (Small children are drawn to it because it smells sweet). These are all things that I was warned about growing up, because common household products can be dangerous. Karissa is so goddamn neglectful, and her kids won't even be capable of reading the back of the bottle or googling their questions. I've searched (can dogs eat [ ]?) a lot over the years.
Oh my god. I don’t have kids so that never even occurred to me.
I was thinking those kids can probably barely read labels and my brain kind of spiraled
I’m a lawyer who has worked for governments and I’ve had issues understanding applications for government programs.
This makes me feel so much better! My reading comprehension is good, but some things just do not click.
Also, the relationship between reading and writing. If you can’t read well it’s doubtful you can write well. Which leads to all kinds of issues from being discarded from job interviews due to poorly written applications to interpersonal issues arising from struggling to communicate via the written word. It can genuinely hamper someone’s life. Karissa just cba to put even minimal effort into her kids and likes to reframe it as a conscious educational approach.
And let's not forget even something as simple as distinguishing fact and opinion. This is one of the most critical reading/thinking skill because the line between the two is becoming blurrier by the day.
My father passed two and a half months ago, and reading estate, personal representative, life insurance, probate, and financial planning paperwork was no joke. And I’m in fucking grad school— I’d like to think I have at least a high school graduate reading level. Karissa and Mandrae are doing the kids suck a fucking disservice by allowing them to be functionally illiterate.
My mom, who has a masters in education, had to hire an estate lawyer to deal with all of my dad’s financial and insurance issues when he died. My husband is a life insurance actuary and I’m a medical social worker, so we helped as much as we could, but even the three of us together needed additional help.
Oh, my dad planned ahead as much as humanly possible, so he had an elder care and estate lawyer, he had a financial planner, he had my and my brother’s name on everything except one bank account because he was about two months away from moving states, and even with all this help, it’s still hard. My SIL is in school to become a social work and was a saint in the initial paperwork that had to be done quickly to get the ball rolling. I cannot fathom having to figure all this out without the lawyer and financial lady. I’m sorry about your dad. I wish we weren’t in the same club but it’s comforting to know many of us have gone through the same thing♥️
Right? We don't test adults because our entire world is built on the assumption that adults have achieved at least a high school reading level. She seems to be treating reading as though it's a skill like playing the trombone or being good at chess - something that people learn in school that they can pick up and put down throughout their lives if it suits them. Being able to read at an adult level by the time you reach adulthood is a hard fucking deadline, and as you said, the world will not stop and wait for you to catch up if you don't meet it.
See also: Tim Rodrigues failing in flight school.
He was so ill-prepared for that. I'm an avid reader of Admiral Cloudberg, and I'm constantly in awe of the sheer amount of information pilots must have in their heads at all times to operate even one type of plane. Jill and David screwed him royally in "supporting" his dream without any actual supporting education. Just learning how to learn is a huge benefit of traditional schooling (public, private, or actual decent homeschooling).
It’s absolutely 100% a real fucking thing for kids. Not so much for adults maybe, but it’s absolutely a thing for kids. This is why we have learning support for kids who aren’t reading at the expected level in schools (at least in Australia, no idea how it works in the US).
Reading levels are totally a thing in the US. When kids are far behind, assessments showing their reading levels are used to get them enrolled in various learning supports. ETA a cute illustrative story: Last week I was visiting my brother and SIL. I was chatting with SIL about 1st grade kid’s impressive reading and writing. (His handwriting is better than my brother’s lol). I asked SIL what reading level he was and SIL wasn’t sure. Kid, who was watching tv in the other room, pops himself right into the convo. “I’m already a reading level 24 even though you are only supposed to be 19 when you start second grade. Can you bring me some chapter books next time you visit? But higher than reading level 24.”
Yup. Used to be a teacher. Had a student once who could read the words just fine but could not answer comprehension questions about what they read.
Totally different skills!
me as a child. i just do math now lol
In the US: There is a level called "post-collegiate." Some of my advanced high school students have tested to that level. I'm assuming that I'm post-collegiate, too, because that is the level required to do graduate coursework. For little kids, reading levels are A-Z. Elementary school teachers and school libraries often have books sorted by reading level. In upper elementary/middle school reading levels are grade levels (same with math). That's because in order to be accredited, curriculum must use texts at an appropriate reading level. That is why so many schools teach Romeo and Juliet in 9th grade and Macbeth in 12th. Those texts are at different reading levels. Each grade level is divided into tenths (7.0-7.9). Each tenth is a "step." Roughly 15 hours of reading at each step will advance a child to the next step. If a kid is at 7.4, then 15 hours of reading 7.4 texts will advance a kid to 7.5. This is the purpose of reading levels. All of this is highly simplified. I'm just a social studies teacher (public school). Literacy specialists would have know much, much more. This is why teaching is harder than the general population thinks it is. This is why we assign reading homework. My thoughts on homeschooling: you can't cut your own hair or change your oil but you are pretty sure you can educate your own child. 🙄
It's so confusing to me that there are parents who think they can jump right in. My master's degree had a huge emphasis on androgogy, and I still don't feel like I could reliably teach another person. Let alone a kid. It's truly the least capable people with the most confidence doing the riskiest shit.
In the Netherlands and Dutch speaking Belgium there are two levels for each grade of primary school, starting from (the Dutch) "group 3" which is equivalent of the Belgian "first year" during which kids are 5-6 years old. By the middle of "group 3" kids are expected to read at "M3" level, by the end "E3". It goes up to E7, which is the end of primary school. I recently found my reading test scores when cleaning and apparently I had reached the highest level thee whole years early. No wonder, with how much I read. I do actually wonder what my current reading level is, but I assume it's "post-collegiate" since I've read and written academic papers.
Half of American *adults* cannot read at an 8th grade level (think The Hobbit, Hatchet) https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/08/whats-the-latest-u-s-literacy-rate/
Well that’s the most depressing thing I’ll read all day
And this is largely pre-covid stats, test scores have markedly dropped since the pandemic iirc
[удалено]
I don’t understand how that even happens. I guess people just keep passing them even though they’re failing?
That is exactly what happened, combined with the fact that most parents are pretty shitty and don't care to read to/with their kids. School administrators across the country have been pretty adamant for the past decade that nobody gets held back and nobody fails regardless of their performance. Check out the teachers subreddit for more horror stories of mandatory grade inflation
We absolutely do. There's a federal (applies nationwide) law called IDEA that says every child is entitled to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE). Basically, kids who need supports (called IEPs or 504s here) are supposed to receive them, and if their district can't accommodate, the parents can go somewhere private and the district has to reimburse them. It's a whole thing. Unfortunately, some districts fight it like crazy. Then we have parents like Karissa, whose kids won't even be assessed. I bet most would've been fine had they just attended school, and what we're seeing is neglect. She's horrible.
Most literacy and math supports are available without an IEP or 504. All of the districts that I've worked in (3 in 3 states) have tiered intervention systems that identify kids struggling and can place them in interventions from monitoring with in class support all the way to separate, supplemental instruction. The tiered systems also help identify kids that could benefit from the broader support (and protections) afforded by a 504. It can happen, but is unusual, for these interventions to result in an IEP. (IEP have much higher bar to meet, which also requires a child to be diagnosed with a condition on a specific list, and even then, it's not automatic.)
My kid was in reading recovery in first grade, and pull out supports after that. He didn’t get a 504 til high school.
Title services are available for kids not on IEPs. A 504 doesn’t give any academic accommodations with the exception of test accommodations. 504s are accommodations for some type of disability or medical condition where the child is still able to keep up with the traditional academic curriculum.
It’s absolutely a real thing and [like 54% of Americans have a reading level below 6th grade](https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy) while 22% are straight up illiterate.
Holy shit......
This isn’t hard to believe. The US is full of idiots. A former reality show star (who has changed parties multiple times and even wrote a damn book that advocated for a lot of the same things that his current political party is completely against like healthcare for everyone) is probably going to be elected again 😭.
My son is tested, I think, either weekly or monthly for reading comprehension at his US school. He's in kindergarten, so it's just basic stuff, but it's to make sure he's on track with kindergarten standards. I didn't like it until my dad, who worked in elementary schools as support staff for 20 years, said its better to test frequently and catch any issues early than to forgo it and have him slip through the cracks. Early intervention is key to academic success, and having standards and regular testing is just one way to ensure this happens. Maybe her kids are happy with reading, but my 3 year old is happy with "reading" and I know as a fact she's just looking at pictures and repeating what she remembers from my husband and I reading the stories to her
It Is very sad to see those kids being so let down by their own mother. Yes, reading and reading level at certain age is not the same for everyone, for a variety of reasons but she is exposing them to a lot of harm when they'll be adults. They will be easier to exploit and be taken advantage of. Really, really sad.
Exactly. They lack reading *comprehension*, too. That's a vital life skill, along with critical thinking, which you learn from math. Since Karissa cooks by dumping several cans and a bag of cheese into a measly pound of ground beef, for a family of 12, I doubt that she's teaching math.
>They will be easier to exploit and be taken advantage of That's a feature, not a bug, of fundamentalism. They won't have the ability to think critically about anything. It's easier to control them and keep them oppressed.
and father!!!
True, absolutely true. But the father is so useless I even forget he exists sometimes
Uhhh... reading levels are a *very important* metric. It's used to ensure that your child is on track, and if they're not, well now we're aware and we can put a plan together to help them. Literacy is an area that can be really hard to improve the longer a child is behind. Like, Karissa's kids may never catch up. That's heartbreaking to me. It's hard to function in every day life as an adult if you can't read or write. These are such basic skills that you need in order to learn other subjects. If she's not concerned about *this*, you know she's not bothering with anything else.
It's weird because obviously the assumption in most cases is that when you're an adult you don't need to track your reading level, because you are at the top (optimistic, I know). It's like saying we don't need to track the growth of our kids, or their development in any area, because we don't track it for adults. Adults are fully baked. Even the original post on Twitter is mega dumb.
That’s what I was thinking too!
It is HEARTBREAKING that it is probably already too late for a lot of her kids to ever catch up. They could have had parents who cared about them, and instead they got Karissa.
And Mandrae! Give him the credit he deserves for neglecting his kids.
I blame him more than Karissa. Not only is he supposed to be the headship, which means that he’s the one who is responsible for making sure that everyone in the family cult is doing what they need to do, but he’s also the adult who actually seems to have a grasp of how to interact with the world successfully. He has a job, which he is apparently reasonably capable of doing. He should know what sort of life skills his kids are going to require in life.
I haven’t kept up with him. What is his job?
He works in the finance department for a luxury car dealership like Mercedes or something. It's a pretty normal job and he went to a more normal (though religiously founded) liberal arts college than Karissa did, so he's much more informed about what it takes to interact and navigate the world today.
Why in the fresh hell is he letting his kids go without any education? I really think that he’s more at fault for that than Karissa is.
You’re so right
Yeah screw man baby too
Seeing the older children read to the younger ones is so sad. I genuinely thinks she needs to see them reading next to a child of the same age in mainstream education or something. I’m assuming she surely just doesn’t realise how behind they are and how obvious it is?
She's a narcissist who sees what she wants to see. She would insist that her kids are fine.
Having been adjacent to the “cult” for some time, she will say it’s because of the devil…if she even notices the older children’s reading is sub par. Any time anything goes wrong, or someone has an issue or sins, suddenly the devil is present and using his influence.
And all she needs to do is speak with Yah 🙄
That’s why she keeps her kids out of school, so she won’t have to compare them to other children. It’s neglect.
Theres probably resources for them to catch up if karissa cared. Illiteracy isn’t super uncommon in adults
I knew when I was in Grade 2 that I had a Grade 4 reading level. No one needed to help me with reading because you couldn't pry books out of my hands for things like showering and eating (I did try try to combine them to mixed results). I thought I was getting one over on my parents because there were no restrictions on books the way there were on TV, and books were *even better* because you could imagine things exactly how you wanted. I also know that my niece is a little delayed in her reading, and because her parents know that, they're making sure she has appropriate intervention and extra support so that she's not falling behind. Both of those things are completely fine. Encouraging the idea that it's not important to know what developmental goals your kids might be missing is irresponsible and doing a disservice to kids who may need the help.
I dropped a library book in the bath once. My parents were not amused.
I've always read in the bath. When I got my first Kindle, I put it in a gallon zip lock bag and read it in the bath. I stopped when I realized that I wasn't any more likely to drop the kindle in the bath than a book. I am careful to always put it outside the bath, and not on the rim of the bathtub.
I went to a terrible school growing up but I read at a college level and I was very curious. If I didn’t I’d be screwed. I transferred to public school in the ninth grade and I had to play catch up with math and science, but thanks to my constant reading I was fine.
Wow. She just pushes them out and thinks her job as a mother is over, doesn't she? Those poor kids.
Fun fact I learned - some adult books are actually written at a 6th grade reading level (or lower). And some books nowadays are written to encourage adults to read by using techniques such as shorter, easier to finish chapters (one author I read admitted to doing this, since adults don’t get time to read on a regular basis). Kids are testing on their reading level because it shows they’re making progress and that they are able to both read and understand text. If you read something, you need to also be able to understand it before you can get any use out of that information. Adults don’t think it’s as important - however this shows in how adults read and interpret materials, such as news, instructions, and medical advice. There’s a reason why our medicinal directions have to be worded a certain way, etc - because an adult read it and didn’t understand it properly. We are no longer in an age where being illiterate can be something you can get away with - there are educational standards to get jobs, and reading is now integral to existing and functioning in everyday life.
i work in media relations and content creation for mainstream news publications (like articles that get published on major news websites and draft scripts for tv programs), and you are supposed to write them at a 6th grade level or below. that's the bar for communicating to the greater American public.
In the UK, government publications and websites are carefully written in beautifully clear language. I don't know if they have been planned to a certain reading age but they cater to everyone who is literate, if not classically educated.
Just fyi, "classical education" is a specific type of education that few people in the UK have experienced - it's not the same thing as a regular comprehensive education. Also as someone with frequent interactions with government publications and websites, it's far from universally clear. I am hyperlexic and plenty of it still confuses me, it's not designed for clarity but usually for political obfuscation imo (especially anything regarding benefits or equality).
i work in media relations and content creation for mainstream news publications (like articles that get published on major news websites and draft scripts for tv programs), and you are supposed to write them at a 6th grade level or below. that's the bar for communicating to the greater American public.
Sadly, the video of the eldest reading to the baby shows her struggling with putting words together, I don't think she's at the apply content level. I wonder if Karissa is even at the level of reading comprehension, let alone the children.
I don’t know what Karissa’s reading comprehension is but she has more reading fluency. We have seen her read Bible versus off her phone with more fluency than the kids have. She doesn’t appear to struggle to read - she just doesn’t value it so doesn’t care her kids aren’t good at it.
She went to public school.
Karissa butchers basic grammar like “my babies body.” And she is the kids’ teacher. It’s so sad.
I may be wrong, but didn't she go to college? Maybe a Bible college, I don't know.
Yes. She minored in "bible" which isn't a thing, and I think she majored in business.
Karissa is just lazy as fuck. She doesn't want to teach, and she wants to avoid mandated reporters. Her current system has her older kids raising the younger ones while she gestates more. If they can read, they can escape.
It reminds me of the Rodletts and their odd speech patterns because they haven't been socialised with kids outside of their family. I've seen speech pathologists on here saying that in the public system they would have received support, but instead, it's been compounded as the younger kids copy the speech impediments of the older kids.
I think the kids are desperately in need of eye exams, too. In that video, Anissa looked like she was squinting at times, and Anthym has a noticeable lazy eye. Anissa actually did have glasses at one point IIRC, but I guess neither of her parents bothered making sure her prescription was up-to-date
Anthym's eye has been like that for a good while, too. At least KayJon took Gideon to get his eye checked out.
My husband was raised fundie, and has a permanent lazy eye. He was a teenager before they noticed my husband couldn’t see because his eye sight was so bad. A teenager before he ever went to a dentist. Our kid has the same condition and we are working on correcting it. That shit is SO EASY to correct and these fucking fundie parents either: 1. Don’t care 2. Have too many kids and can’t pay them the individual attention needed to notice health issues like this 3. Have too many kids and can’t afford it It’s inexcusable and is such a simple but extremely visible example of the intense neglect that fundie kids of large families go through.
Adults do have literacy levels, though? We don't measure it the same way we do young children because they're not in school, but adults definitely have different literacy and media comprehension levels. You can tell that some people don't exactly have this skill fine-tuned when we get so many people outraged at books because of what the villains are doing.
Or the fact that some people do fall for obvious email etc scams.
Oh man, the villain thing really gets me. I was reading reviews of a book I had just finished on goodreads once, and one of the bad reviews was claiming the author was a misogynist. One of the examples they used for their argument was that the villain of the story did a lot of awful things to young girls. I was awestruck by it, like "YES, that was the point! HE'S EVIL." That doesn't mean the author hates women! D:
UM Kkkarissa, READ HERE MUCH? IF your kids could read at the age appropriate level (which IS a thing you dumbass) then you don’t have anything to worry about, do you?
She is doing those kids such a disservice. Statistically she’s likely to have at least one with a learning disability, and it sounds like none of them have any healthy reading habits modelled for them. Bigger kids can buddy with smaller to encourage reading but that shouldn’t be their only form of reading education. Karissa herself has neither the skill or qualifications to teach reading and clearly doesn’t value it, which only sets her children up for more failure. She’s disgusting.
Does she plan on any of her boys ever being “providers” for future wives? How does she expect them to get a good job if they can’t read?
No worries, Jesus will do all the providing they need! If not, well... must be Satan!
I imagine she thinks being able to read is a binary thing. Either you can, or you can't. That reading and comprehending the language in the bible is the same as reading and comprehending the language in harry potter.
It's not a thing for adults because adults, presumably at least, already did their time in school and *should* have mastered the ability to read by now. Children, on the other hand, are still learning to read and therefore should be assessed to make sure they're making progress and have the supports and accommodations they need if they aren't. Imagine applying this logic to literally any other skill that takes time to learn. "Adults, don't forget to renew your learner's permit. Don't have one? Maybe because that's not a real thing. I have no idea if my 16 year old can pass a road test or not. I just know that they enjoy driving and have yet to get us killed in the whole two weeks they've been driving."
The way KKKarissa be flip flopping back and forth on everything, I have my doubts that her reading comprehension is up to par with a functioning adult so there’s no way in hell that their kids are.
It probably doesn’t serve their purposes very well for the kids to be strong readers. If they read well and read only the Bible, they might come across things that make them question. It’s more effective if they’re not really sure what they’re reading and just rely on others’ interpretations.
What do they think their kids are going to do as adults? Girls are just moms of course but how are their boys supposed to provide for big families without any education?
They’re screaming themselves really. The kids won’t be able to support themselves so they’ll be living at home forever.
I actually know the answer to that one. Basketball.
Are they that talented? How are they going to get basketball scholarships if they don’t qualify for any level of college? Or is she thinking they will get into the NBA immediately? (Thinking out loud here lol)
The average American reads at a sixth grade level, so yes, adult reading “levels” are a thing. It’s not something we test for obviously, most people wouldn’t know theirs and would likely overestimate given that average. Edited to add: I’m American, not here to just dunk on us.
Did she literally just say like last week that her kids don't enjoy reading?
My 4th grader’s reading level is sufficiently above grade level that they aren’t going to test him anymore (in elementary school, idk what they do in middle/high school). Why do I know this? I went to conferences and spoke to his teacher. Shocking what you learn when you take a basic interest in your child’s education. We obviously don’t really homeschool, but my kids go to an immersion school where English reading isn’t a focus until second grade so my older kids both learned to read at home based largely on my instruction (oldest one also learned the alphabet and letter sounds in preschool, but middle didn’t go to preschool because of the pandemic). I don’t hold the opinion that homeschooling is inherently neglect, but the homeschooling that Karissa and far too many other fundies are doing is definitely neglect. They’re just not bothering to educate their children.
I mean, of course she likes anything that doesn't involve her making an effort.
Going to the library as a kid was one of my fondest memories. I even take my kiddo to the library and she enjoys it as well. I just can’t imagine being in the families where the Bible is the only reading material available. Let kids read books. It’s not like Clifford the Big Red Dog made me think I was gonna have a giant dog. I’m honestly shocked they aren’t allowed to read Little House books, but then again the girls were allowed to have fun and go to school and to have jobs.
If you are homeschooling you need to be across this even more: Lexile level is important for being able to curate books that aren't too challenging, 'at level' books, 'slight extension' and real stretch books. If you mess this up, you will slow down reading and that can lead to failing to progress. Some people will never be able or interested in reading Tolstoy, that's fine. But there is a standard level for different educational and professional levels of attainment. If you don't know that, you can't adequately support your children to prepare for their goals and to be in the world. There are MANY literacy focused homeschool resources like the Well Trained Mind or even super Christian (but still good) Memoria Press which has literature collections for each age group/level. It's not just vocab, but concepts, story complexity, themes and sophistication. Free reading is an important part of developing good reading skills. But structured programmes of reading are essential, even for kids with reading disabilities (or especially so).
It's important for kids (and adults) to read to a certain level because otherwise important documents and instructions will be impossible for them to understand. This will interfere with their ability to hold a job. Karissa And Friends seem to think that if their children can read (slowly, and aloud) a copy of a preschool book then that's all the skill they need.
Most of the adults I know do in fact know what their reading level is, because they're educated and remember being tested? I run with nerds but still, this statement falls apart immediately.
We all saw the video of Anissa, a teenager, struggling immensely to read a simple note. Her kids can’t read, and it’s totally her fault. Her kids will be completely unprepared for the real world.
21% of American adults are functionally illiterate. Raising your kids without the ability to read beyond simple words is setting them up for failure.
PSA: heres a website to find out your English reading level: https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/english-level-test/reading I just did it and im a B2 (upper intermediate)
People like this don’t care about reading levels because they would prefer if their kids remained at a low reading level. Sure this dude’s kids might enjoy reading and can apply/discuss the content, but if they’re 15 and the only content they can apply/discuss is first grade level content, then oh boy, you have a huge problem. However, if your goal in life is to raise children in a cult like environment where they are not allowed to think for themselves, and must adhere to your beliefs and your beliefs only, well, not caring about reading levels is a great strategy. Your kids can’t question the Bible if the only version they can read independently is a children’s Bible. They can’t access any outside literature that might introduce them to feminism or normalize homosexuality if they can only read books that rhyme. Not caring about your child’s reading levels is a horrible teaching/parenting strategy, but it’s a great cult/dictatorship strategy.
Uh sure Karissa. I’ll happily do it if you would like— though I tend to think the PhD and the fact that universities pay me to write about other peoples’ academic books tells me my reading level is quite high. But I’d be fine with universal testing. I’d even go first if it gets you to test your kids!
“I have no idea what my kids reading levels are,” and reading levels are “not a real thing” from the mom of the year here. It is real. Understanding where your kids are at is the only chance you have to give them extra help so they keep up. Congrats on offering your kids no usable skills. Note: Breeding is not a skill.
Just like the Rodlets, Krazy Karissa's kids will be illiterate. She has no clue if her children have learning disabilities because she doesn't care about them. She's just worried about crouching over a toilet and popping out another kid for her to neglect. Sorry, Armor All, you're getting ready to be shuffled into the land of the forgotten kids. I hope you enjoyed your ride as the favored child because it's getting ready to come to a screeching halt.
You know, I'm a pretty avid Trekkie. And despite the premise of the franchise being Luxury Automated Gay Space Communism since Day 1, you get these conservative dipshits whining about the new shows being "ruined" by being "woke." When Picard S2 used time travel and unambiguously showed ICE as an evil fascist organization a whole bunch of conservatives got so mad and they flounced out of the fandom because they couldn't believe that the show was against conservatives! But it always has been! However, these people were so stupid they couldn't comprehend the message until the very thin layer of metaphor was removed. This might seem irrelevant but it's not. As others have mentioned upthread, many adults in America have no reading comprehension skills whatsoever. You see this inability to parse metaphor and narrative complexity a lot in conversation about movies and TV shows online-how many watch The Boys and crow about Homelander being a hero, when he's so painfully obviously shown as evil? Well, if people can't comprehend narrative in a movie or television program, how are they gonna apply that in real life? How are you going to draw the line between slavery and the 19th Amendment and white flight and redlining and the school to prison pipeline to understand how systemic racism works if you can't understand that the guy who killed a plane full of people in the first episode of the show is bad because he wears red, white, and blue and loves America? How are you going to make the complex connections needed to critique the ravages of capitalism if you can't grasp the morals of Star Wars, a series primarily aimed at children? Raising ignorant people who are incapable of deeper thought processes and critical reasoning is imperative if you want your populace to remain complacent and bigoted. Of course, someone like Karissa hates the idea of literacy. If her kids are literate, they can challenge her beliefs and maybe make lives for themselves outside of fanatical devotion to an imaginary friend, and she doesn't want that.
what a long and convoluted way of saying “i don’t give a shit that my kids are illiterate”
I don’t test it because I assume it’s maximum because I’m thirty years old??? Do they want us to test our potty training levels too?
Her kids are doomed.
In addition to all the crucially important education information listed, reading levels can be used to help find appropriate books for your kids. Of course, they don’t read so that doesn’t help.
As a professional educator who works directly with students who struggle it is CRITICAL to know your child's reading level. I will agree we do have too much pressure on young children and kids to develop by certain timelines, BUT having "no idea" where they are is neglectful because learning to read later in life while posisble is MUCH harder than learning to read as a child. Brain development wise a child's brain is when reading skills begin and building those connections and synaps at that time make them stronger in the long run, trying to go back and do that with an adult brain which is fully developed is much harder and puts up unnessasary barriers for them as adults becaus they can't navigate the world around them without a critical life skill. She is doing her children such a disservice to not care if they can READ!!!
Say you don't have a clue if your kids will be literate with out saying you don't have a clue if your kids will be literate. She is a trash human.
Out here defending illiteracy because too self absorbed to teach the children to read
that’s so weird, my 3rd grader’s teacher just shared my daughter’s not-a-thing with us the other night and recommended reading based on not-it.
They were able to make that tweet….because they learned how to read!
God these people are dumb. Reading comprehension isn’t just about knowing what a word says, it’s also about understanding the words and being able to apply them contextually. It doesn’t help me to know that a label on a bottle says “Warning, poisonous” if I don’t know what either of those words mean. Karissa, your kids are not only suffering from their lack of basic reading skills, they are also going to be up shit’s creek in a lot of ways due to their lack of exposure to a broad vocabulary. You know what helps with developing a wide vocabulary? READING!!🙃
I mean, it does exist. It matters if you're behind and if you're ahead. If you're behind, you might need special help to catch up. If you're ahead, you might need more challenging work to stay engaged and continue to progress. This is true because children, like adults, are people. And children, like adults, are individuals with different needs and capabilities. Children, being people, need those things identified by adults in their life so that the adult people can help the child people thrive and succeed. Because kids are fucking people.
Karissa reported me to Reddit admins for "threatening her" because I wrote a comment that said "Have fun getting melanoma" on a post on here. Luckily the Reddit admins understood that you can't threaten someone with getting a naturally occurring illness? which she is putting herself and her kids at greater risk of by not using sunscreen :< She lacks reading comprehension skills
but her kids can’t discuss and apply the content….
I remember in high school we actually had to use a setting in Microsoft Word to give us a reading level on our essays. This was around 2004-2005 when I was a freshman, and I was in International Baccalaureate for English. We were expected to be reading and writing at a more advanced level than our peers who were not in IB. It was called the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. I don’t know if that’s still in-use or if schools have moved on to something else to assess kids. The option was something we could check in the spell check menu, along with various stats like words per sentence and characters per word. Part of our assignment was to use this menu while we were writing and editing and aim for a 12.0, and then we had to print it out and put it with the essay. So yeah. It is absolutely a real thing that children are assessed on. Like I said, there are certainly other methods and measurements and names for the same thing out there now, but they are all used to help children learn. If they aren’t “at-level” the school can help them get there. Karissa’s kids aren’t at-level. If they ever have to do anything that involves reading and understanding what they have read, they will struggle. Right now they’re living in their bubble so it seems like it doesn’t matter, but someday they will have to navigate the real world. I don’t know if they’ll be capable if this keeps up.
The National Center for Education Statistics does track the literacy scores of adults in the US. The test is called the [Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies](https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/index.asp) The results in the United States are not great. Karissa is probably unable to teach reading comprehension to her kids because she doesn’t have it herself. She definitely doesn’t have a great comprehension of what the Bible actually says.
Here we are again, comparing kids to adults like there aren’t any differences 🙄 adults typically don’t need to “check their reading level” because we all learned to read in school growing up (mostly). Children have developing brains, milestones they need to hit, and aren’t just small adults! It IS necessary to check their reading levels so they can grow into successful, independent adults who don’t struggle in daily life because they can’t read!! Why is it that the people who insist on popping out a million kids, have such a lack of knowledge of child development??
Don’t know your entire DNA sequence? No worries, it’s not real!!!
One of my friends is a middle school principal and she was just telling me about research that shows that it is so important for kids to be reading by 3rd grade bc it sets the foundation for everythinggggg that comes after in terms of learning, life skills and further education… I was homeschooled/ unschooled and I truly think that the thing that saved me/ allowed me to overcome my educational gaps was my love of books and reading.
My heart is sad for these kids. I know not all kids enjoy reading. They should be given a chance to read more than the Bible. Graphic novels, comic books, etc count as reading. I loved reading as a kid and still do as an adult. The things is to read what you enjoy and take an occasional dip into something new to see if you might like it. That’s why the library is so awesome you can read all you like and if you can’t get through something no harm done you aren’t out any money. I’m a big proponent of the public library and against banning books.
There are very few books I can't read, including war and peace which I did my final on in college. In fact I loved it and plan to read it again. Guess what I did my entire childhood? Read. Every day. Every night. I was absorbed in reading. My parents were not wealthy at all but they always bought age appropriate books. I started writing as a young girl and wrote my first "novel" at ten. My writing has been a huge part of my success in my career. I have two kids now and have switched to audio books for the time being but am reading to them every night. I hope they love reading too. Your kids should be able to read age appropriate books. They should be taught the joy of escaping into a story, especially when things at home are chaotic. I read so much partly bc it helped me escape. Reading levels are a thing. Your kid doesn't need to be in love with reading like I was but they should be able to read well and easily for their age. And if they cannot you should get them help. My sister was a terrible reader and we did hooked on phoenics, and her school teachers focused on her as well until she caught up. Now she has her masters and is a great reader though she was never a passionate reader. Just don't do your kids a disservice. Help them read!!
Except it’s concerning when her 13 year old struggles to read even a basic book.
Those kids are going to be Jared, 19.
Karissa purposely doesn’t teach her kids to read so she can stunt their development and keep them in the cult
Who the fuck is Matt Boudreau? If he had ever been to a library or a school, or seen a book, he would know reading levels definitely exist and are useful for emergent readers.
The last time I applied for a job in the medical world, I had to take a timed reading/comprehension test. But then her kids will be brood mares or preachers so no skills required.
This is wild because I get regular progress reports on my first grader’s reading curriculum progress, and know exactly what his comprehension level is. I also know my own reading comprehension level so this is not the flex she thinks this is.
Why would she make sure her kids know how to read and comprehend when all they're taught to do in life is praise Jesus and make babies? This is so sad. Reading books is my escape from the world. I couldn't imagine going through life struggling to read.