Most people think America’s biggest crises are political, economic, or moral.
And while I agree that we’ve got plenty to worry about in all three of those categories, there’s another one hiding in plain sight—one that quietly shapes all the others.
According to the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, more than half of American adults read below a sixth-grade level. That translates to about 130 million people who can’t comfortably read a job application, medical instructions, or even a simple ballot.
It’s what experts are calling a “silent crisis,” one that’s costing the U.S. economy over $2 trillion every year in lost productivity, health-care confusion, and dependency on government programs.
But the real cost is about much more than dollars.
Because when people can’t read confidently, they can’t learn independently. And when they can’t learn independently, they become easy to control.
Sadly, this is a predictable outcome of an education system that values obedience over actual outcomes.
We have a school system focused on compliance, not curiosity. On testing, not understanding. On pushing kids through the system, whether they’ve actually mastered the material or not.
And now we’re seeing the result: a population that can’t read well enough to understand the news they consume, the contracts they sign, or the policies they vote for. Low literacy doesn’t just limit opportunity—it limits freedom.
This is just one of the reasons we do this work.
We want to help parents raise kids who do more than read words. We want to help raise kids who can read the world around them. Who can recognize bias, follow an argument, spot manipulation, and think clearly in a sea of noise.
That’s the idea behind the Tuttle Twins Academy.
When your kids learn about free markets, personal responsibility, and critical thinking, they’re not just absorbing lessons, they’re building mental muscles that protect them from manipulation.
They’re learning to question the narrative instead of being consumed by it.
The good news is, it’s working. I hear from parents every week who tell me their kids are suddenly asking sharper questions at dinner, debating respectfully, or spotting inconsistencies in what they hear from authority figures.
That’s literacy in its truest sense.
The truth is, if half the adults in America can’t read past a sixth-grade level, that means half the country is functionally cut off from understanding the systems that govern their lives.
And that impacts all of us in some pretty profound ways.
We can’t wait for the system that caused the problem to fix it. It never will. Concerned and engaged parents are the only real answer.
Today is the final day of our Cyber Monday sale on the Tuttle Twins Academy—an online learning program that brings these ideas to life for kids and teens.
If you’ve been waiting, now is the time to catch some of the best deals of the year on our most valuable offerings.
We want to help you equip your kids to be the exception to the rule, the ones who grow up confident, curious, and capable of understanding the world around them.
👉 Enroll in the Tuttle Twins Academy before the sale ends tonight.
— Connor
