Tea at Five

North Wales

You're pretty good at searching here and there, but there's a lot more to academic research. This is why we put together this free, self-guided course!

It is everything. There’s not one answer. I could talk about this forever so instead I set a five minute timer on my phone and wrote a list of as many of the many things that are causing this on a systemic level that I could think of:

It’s parents not reading with their kids (a privilege, but some parents have that privilege to be able to do this and don’t.)

It’s youtube from birth and never being bored.

It’s phasing out phonics for sight words (memorizing without understanding sounds or meaning) in elementary schools in the early aughts.

It’s defunding public libraries that do all the community and youth outreach.

It’s NCLB and mandating standardized tests which center reading short passages as opposed to longform texts so students don’t build up the endurance or comprehension skills.

It’s NCLB preventing schools from holding students back if they lack the literacy skills to move onto the next grade because they can’t be left behind so they’re passed on.

It’s the chronic underfunding of ESL and Special Ed programs for students who need extra literacy support.

It’s the cultural devaluing of the humanities in favor of stem and business because those make more money which leads to a lot of students to completely disregard reading and writing.

It’s the learning loss from covid.

It’s covid trauma manifesting in a lot of students as learned helplessness, or an inability to “figure things out” or push through adversity to complete challenging tasks independently, especially reading difficult texts.

It’s covid normalizing cheating and copying.

It’s increasing phone use.

It’s damage to attention span exacerbated by increased phone use that leaves you without an ability to sit and be bored ever without 2-3 forms of constant stimulation.

It’s shortform video becoming the predominant form of social media content as opposed to anything text-based.

It’s starting to also be generative AI.

It’s the book bans.

We are designing three new pin collections and for the first one we thought it would be fun to have Pride Knights making music together and dancing! We need your feedback. Which designs do you like the most?

“wait, sake is sparkling? what have i been drinking?” i said. because i also dont like sparkling stuff.

i look at the sake bottle ive been drinking from for fun events for the past year. its vinegar.

and:

galadriel turning her back on the ethereal light of elven heaven to hunt down and savage a demigod with her dead brother's dagger, only to accidentally fall in love with that demigod isn't the fragile, guilt-laden journey we're used to seeing women undertake.

it's unapologetic. it's defiant. it's staring into the storm and deciding you have the right to step forward into that tempest. (a decision men have made time and time again in story and in song while women are rarely given the opportunity.) she's not watching the rings of power from a distance. she's the heart of the show, her delirious appetite to kill sauron the only reason the story even exists in the first place. and yes, for those knowingly or unknowingly anxious about women, it's a hard watch. that's exactly why they should watch it.