Mary Harrington
The age of post-literacy is upon us. The dismayed warnings from teachers and professors have been growing in volume for some years; now, The Atlanticreports in its latest cover story that one Harvard student needed a set text translated from “Old English” in order to read it. The book in question? A Clockwork Orange.
The digital revolution, author Rose Horowitch argues, completes a trajectory predicted from the mid-20th century by writers such as Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, and Neil Postman: the end of mass literacy, and with it much of the normative culture we take for granted. Horowitch musters literacy scholars, critics, and doom-sayers to warn that this transformation will change the way we think — that it will usher in a less rational, more demagogic political culture. Her argument goes that this is, in effect, a new burning of the Library of Alexandria.
All this is right. But beyond a gesture at Trumpian rhetoric, Horowitch balks at thinking through in any detail the political implications of the new digital post-literacy. In fact, this is its central feature, and its implications are less revolutionary than astonishingly reactionary, in ways that make even the most staunch conservative look like a squashy Leftist.
The end of mass literacy means the degradation of every large-scale transformation that formed the modern world, from secularism to industrial technology, nation-states and democracy. A post-literate polity is less rationalistic, meaning it’s also more willing to believe in curses, demons and Satanic pedophile rings. No wonder, perhaps, that from “WitchTok” to hipster Catholicism to apocalyptic AI, a supernova of religious and crypto-religious phenomena has left bewildered commentators wondering what happened to “New Atheism” and the world of science and reason it promised.
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2026-2027 Madison K-12 $pending continues to grow, fueled by a 9.7% (!) property tax increase. Total spending will be at least $706,000,000 for 25,003 students, or $28,236 per student.
May 2026 Madison School District Presentation: 7,095 adults for 25,003 students (3.52 students per adult!)
Early Literacy Screener Map.
Map: Foundations of Reading Results: 2015–2024
Where have all the students gone?
3,887 Madison 4 year old to third grade students scored lower than 75% of the students in the national comparison group.
Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average k-12 tax & $pending. This despite our long term, disastrous reading results. May, 2026: 7,095 Staff for 25,003 students; $pending > $26k per student!
Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability
The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery…
The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic”
A.B.T.: “Ain’t been taught.”
My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results
2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results
Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.
“An emphasis on adult employment”
Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results
Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.
When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?