[Telaneo]

It's not difficult per se, but you can't throw anyone into a kitchen and expect food to be made as a result. You still need to be taught to some extent. The bar is a lot lower than playing an instrument or many other things, but there's still a bar below which (edible) food will not be made. If you've never been taught and never went out of your way to learn, you won't know how to.

Some people get out of school not being able to read and write, at least to any meaningful degree. The fact that some people get out of school not being able to cook thus shouldn't be surprising.

[johnisgood]

Is the US education system really this bad?

[Telaneo]

The same problem is present in other parts of the world, even in Europe, although I believe not to the same extent.

[johnisgood]

I got down-voted, which is odd, because I truly have not encountered anyone here in Hungary who do not know how to read nor write. The only demographic that may difficulties with that are gypsies because they typically do not go to school.

Additionally, is it not common knowledge the US education system is bad?

[Telaneo]

Might be an American in denial.

The 'meaningful' part of my original comment is carrying a lot of weight there. Most people are literate in the literal sense of that word, but I went to class with people who have not read a written work longer than five pages sine they went out of school, and I would not trust them to read an even vaguely complicated instruction manual without me explaining something to them. They are not literate in any meaningful sense of that word. They barely knew how to read when we took our final exams, but they did pass, since no-one wants to deal with the trouble of actually teaching them now. They're good people. The schools just failed them.

I could barely write when I got out school, in the sense that I couldn't read my own handwriting. I had to be taught anew when I learned a language that uses a different script, and that practice made my normal handwriting 10 times better.

[Telaneo]

And this is before you get into people who for most intents and purposes apparently can read, but their brain grinds to a halt when a computer requires them to do that very same activity and act accordingly. I'm not sure of those people have a similar problem of functional illiteracy, or if it's a problem of a different kind, but it sure is real and sure keeps happening.