Is he dead yet?

[Orrex]

39. In 2010 I worked for the census

My local training group had about 30 people at the start, around 25 at the end of training.

As part of the orientation, we were required to take turns reading aloud from the official manual. Nothing complex, I'd guess that it was geared to a 4th grade reading level, give or take. In retrospect I suppose this was a further screening tool; if someone can't read at all, they might not be suited to filling out forms and explaining the process to random uncounted citizens.

I was shocked at how badly almost every one of them read. I know that reading aloud is a different skill from reading to oneself, but they were sounding out passages syllable by syllable, and they were completely stumped by words like "about" and "confidential."

Not exaggerating, and honestly I felt a bit guilty reading with smooth diction, as if they'd perceive me to be showing off.

But it occurs to me that some government-assembled teams might value illiteracy or near-illiteracy, for reasons that lately seem obvious.