reading comprehension

Patrick Clinton wrote,
"But they're going to need to do better, and soon: Kids today may not have =
a taste for reading novels or history for pleasure, but they can expect to =
make more use of their literacy skills than their parents or grandparents d=
id in coping with new technology, upgrading their job skills and dealing wi=
th a world that generates new knowledge at a frightening pace. In a 1999 re=
port titled "How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School," the Na=
tional Research Council put it this way: "In the early part of the twentiet=
h century, education focused on the acquisition of literacy skills: simple =
reading, writing, and calculating. It was not the general rule for educatio=
nal systems to train people to think and read critically, to express themse=
lves clearly and persuasively, to solve complex problems in science and mat=
hematics. Now … these aspects of high literacy are required of almost eve=
ryone in order to successfully negotiate the complexities of contemporary l=
ife." We can't settle for the standards of a generation ago." http://www.b=
ookmagazine.com/issue24/literacy.shtml