In fact, the international tests show that as they progress through the public school systems, our students become relatively dumber each year than the rest of the world. If you want to confirm the following analysis, just be a substitute math teacher in 7th or 8th grade for a few weeks in various public schools. A good school system would have a performance-based curriculum. Students should demonstrate 3rd grade reading ability before being passed into 4th grade. And that applies to every subsequent grade level in the public school system.
Academic courses mandate the ability to read.
As long as we waste their time on such trivia, they never have time to learn anything about mathematics. A calculator is a complete idiot when it comes to solving a math problem because real math problems start out with words, and my calculator cannot even remember my name, let alone tell me how far above freezing the current temperature is. On the other hand, if I know the current temperature is 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and that freezing is 32, I can ask the calculator to subtract 32 from 78 to determine the temperature difference. Remember that Old John Henry may be beaten the machine, but he died in the effort. In one of the 8th grade math classes I taught as a substitute, the students could not read.