Interesting story on how a guy graduated high school and made it through college, becoming a school teacher, while not knowing
how to read.

http://www.bbc.com/news/stories-43700153

Sad. I bet there will be many other teachers that read and write POORLY, yet instruct the students.

Heard of a French-Canadian with very poor English looking for work as a French teacher in Taiwan.

"Sorry, we only employ Native Speakers, and you are from Canada. We can employ you as an English Teacher though."

So they did. Apparently he learned the relevent bit of the text book by rote the night before and never deviated from it. Students probably liked the predictability.

Dunno if its true but I'd say it easily could be.

That such a scenario could even exist in this day and age both shocks and saddens me.

It is shocking that those who were tasked with making sure he didn't slip through the cracks continued to fail in their duties each and every time they could have done something about the situation. And I am deeply saddened that he was deprived of the experience of reading while still a youth, as that is the most wonderful time to be able to imagine the world around you, both real and unreal, through the reading of books, articles, poetry, and all the other literature that has been put on paper since the beginning of time by our truly skilled authors, philosophers, reporters, etc. Thankfully he has the ability to experience that now, but it surely diminished somewhat by the loss of time and lack of youth his late start to the game has brought.

And then there is the scientist in me who is fascinated and intrigued by the thought of a human brain that must operate so differently from mine. It is difficult to imagine a facet of my daily life that is not affected by my ability to read and write. How my thoughts form and then get expressed are absolutely a result of my ability to read and write. But if I had never learned to read or write, how would I think? How would I listen? How would I express myself in all these situations I find myself in from day to day if I had never learned something so simple (to me) as to read or write?

The simple answer is that nothing would be the same...I would not be the same...and yet I would still be me...just not the Me, me.

If it were not the epitome of rudeness and offensive behavior, I would love to ask him to sit down with me and answer some questions...a bunch of questions actually...probably even an insane amount of questions in his mind, about what it was like to exist on a day to day basis before learning to read and write. But regardless of how scientific my intentions might be, I recognize that subjecting him to such an interrogation would only really benefit me and likely seem interminably intrusive to him. So I will have to just keep on wondering I guess...

Not shocked, I once had a guy working for me who was in his mid 30s and couldn't make a decision.
I got to do it for him, sometimes dozens of them a day.

People don't believe me when I tell this story, but its true. My math teacher in grade school didn't even grasp the simple concepts. I pulled her aside and taught them to her and tried to explain them to her. She was so impressed, she gave me the lesson plan and asked for me to teach the class. Which I did. For the rest of the semester. I think I was in 6th or 7th grade.

I call [censored] on this.

I seriously doubt this actually happened the way the article states.

I seriously doubt making contrarian statements without offering up any supporting evidence, empirical or anecdotal, is going to contribute anything positive to this discussion.

But that’s just me, I could be wrong.

I have serious doubts about this as well.

He comes over as a fantasist. Attention seeking.