"What #thiswar exposes is a failure not only of #strategy but of #literacy. Literature and history, at their most serious, train precisely the faculties these leaders lack: the capacity to grant that other minds are not transparent to us, and are governed by purposes not our own. A mind tutored by #history and #literature knows that actors in the grip of a sacred cause tend to mean what they say — and that bombing a founding myth is more likely to consecrate it than to dissolve it."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/opinion/israel-us-war-iran-literature.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XFA.beTW.5_sgkygBz3u8&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Thanks to those who donated to #ReadingRumble2026 this year. My team won the contest!

The two #books we read were 'Bad Cree' by Jessica Johns, & 'The Best Laid Plans' by Terry Fallis. Both were good, & not the type of book I'd normally choose to #read. I'll have to expand my palate.

Quick video from Terry Fallis introducing the contest: https://youtu.be/5TLGXcRy0fw

It's not too late to donate & help expand #literacy to other adults who need help: https://www.canadahelps.org/me/6VVysJtA

Worth reading:

https://nautil.us/the-internet-has-not-killed-reading-or-attention-spans-1279171

‘Rich kids have always been able to pay tutors, writing coaches, and consultants to help them write essays. AI has simply made that service free and universal. The scandal isn’t that students aren’t writing their own essays. The scandal is that we’re only worrying about the problem now that the cheat is available to everyone.’

#AI #literacy #TheKidsAreAllRight

Nothing makes books more interesting than banning them.

Thanks to the book banning efforts of the Republicans, and many of their illiterate supporters, dozens of nearly forgotten books are enjoying new life and growing interest.

#republicans #books #Bookbans #literacy #MAGA #firstamendment #reading #news #censorship

Why #schools need #cats!

Guernsey students improve skills by reading to rescue cats https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c895wxp23xwo

#reading #literacy

Really excellent piece!

"This is where my understanding of literacy has fundamentally shifted. I used to believe, as I was taught, that literacy was primarily about decoding text. But watching how people actually learn and think has convinced me that literacy is about something deeper: the capacity to construct and navigate environments where understanding becomes possible."
#literacy #attention https://aeon.co/essays/what-we-think-is-a-decline-in-literacy-is-a-design-problem

The chatbot provider that my employer uses is shifting the language from "AI literacy" to "AI fluency"* and I think it's dangerous.
As a multilingual person, I am fluent in more languages than I am literate in, and the difference is not negligible.
I can engage in a philosophical debate in English or French, but not in Spanish or Dutch.
Using the word "fluency" means that Anthropic doesn't want you to engage critically.

*: https://anthropic.skilljar.com/ai-fluency-framework-foundations

#llm #CriticalThinking #Literacy