Can’t Read. Won’t Read.

Posted on by Live & Learn

…Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books…

…But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover…

…Now his students tell him up front that the reading load feels impossible. It’s not just the frenetic pace; they struggle to attend to small details while keeping track of the overall plot…

…(he) finds his students “shutting down” when confronted with ideas they don’t understand; they’re less able to persist through a challenging text than they used to be…his students have trouble staying focused on even a sonnet…

…Failing to complete a 14-line poem without succumbing to distraction suggests one familiar explanation for the decline in reading aptitude: smartphones. Teenagers are constantly tempted by their devices, which inhibits their preparation for the rigors of college coursework—then they get to college, and the distractions keep flowing. “It’s changed expectations about what’s worthy of attention…”

…Teachers at many schools shifted from books to short informational passages, followed by questions about the author’s main idea…

…300 third-to-eighth-grade educators, only 17 percent said they primarily teach whole texts. An additional 49 percent combine whole texts with anthologies and excerpts. But nearly a quarter of respondents said that books are no longer the center of their curricula…

…High-achieving students at exclusive schools like Columbia can decode words and sentences. But they struggle to muster the attention or ambition required to immerse themselves in a substantial text…

…A couple of professors told me that their students see reading books as akin to listening to vinyl records—something that a small subculture may still enjoy, but that’s mostly a relic of an earlier time.

…A 2023 survey of Harvard seniors found that they spend almost as much time on jobs and extracurriculars as they do on academics. And thanks to years of grade inflation (in a recent report, 79 percent of Harvard grades were in the A range), college kids can get by without doing all of their assigned work…

—  Rose Horowitch, from “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books” (The Atlantic, October 1, 2024)

Photo: Dayan Rodio

41 thoughts on “Can’t Read. Won’t Read.”

  5. I couldn’t agree with this more. I see it in my classroom daily. Perseverance in general is at an all time low. But…. I’m working to fix it at the most “elementary” level. And…. In a few days…. You’ll understand that statement. Stay tuned….

  7. My heart sank further and further with each line. It is disheartening.
    Many years ago, my friend sent her nephew (Grade 7) a copy of The Black Stallion to read (he was a fan of horses). Her sister’s reaction was: “He can’t read a book like that! It’s way too thick!”
    My friend and I read said book in Grade 3 or 4…

    2. I have three books, boxed up for my nieces in another state…given my health status (not traveling) they sit in the box…one is The Black Stallion & the other two a set about having and Dog…one book was made into a tear-jerker movie…so when ever someone in the family is passing by my way I will had it off to them…I may split up the books between the three sisters and a sweet 10 year old great nephew… I love knowing that there are people on youtube that have story-time videos and some libraries post story time, as well…

  8. Ah crap. My comment done disappeared! Take two!

    My heart sank deeper with each phrase.
    Many years ago, my friend sent her nephew (grade 7) a copy of “The Black Stallion” (he was a fan of horses) to read. Her sister’s reaction was: “He can’t read that huge book! It’s way too thick with way too many pages!”
    My friend and I read said book in Grade 3…

      1. Hahaha! All that to say that it is a sad day indeed. To not have the concentration needed to enjoy a wonderful read that gets you out of your head and into another world is more than sad.

  9. not a single book cover-to-cover? … no days of wine and roses, no beowulf, no romeo and juliet, no the great gatsby (all required reading– plus others– in my senior year of high school alone)?! my heart is sad for them.

  10. One of the causes…. …Teachers at many schools shifted from books to short informational passages, followed by questions about the author’s main idea…

      2. Are you familiar with this quote? “Children become readers on the laps of their parents” -Buchwald

  11. I agree that it’s a bit shocking but then when I thought back to high school days, I realized there was never enough time for reading a whole book, not many anyway. So much else is going on when we’re in our teen years. There must be a compromise in there somewhere though.

    1. To raise a fair point Anneli, and agree on the compromise. The pendulum has swung too far. And next we’ll here why we need to study arithmetic and math if we have calculators!

  12. One more comment (she lied)… I agree with Dale. Books that I once read to my 3/4 grade classes, I no longer can. For two reasons, inability for students to attend…. Or because parents block content (divorce, death conflict).

  14. What‘s really sad is that no one is (should be) surprised by these findings. In Switzerland we read about a boy doing his ‚Matura‘ (A levels) with excellent results and, being praised nearly nation-wide, proudly let it be known that he didn‘t read a single book of the ‚demanded‘ material of the ‚must read‘ classics (Goethe, Shakespeare). ALL he sent in for his exams whs material he gathered and collected with his own questioning AI…. I mean, come on, he IS a genius of some sort and will make a very good living using this particular knowledge of how to work with AI BUT…. I myself have much trouble to even find people who want or can read my books after I‘ve been finished with them! We are a dying out species. When I scream because I really really have a terrible time giving my beloved books away (due to getting blind), I get to hear: Well be glad, you can dispose of the one or other of your bookshelves.
    And to think that once I wanted nothing more than becoming a teacher…

  15. I came across this article, elsewhere earlier in the month…Disappointing that such a paradine shift has happened…Such a loss to humanity, individually & collectively here in America…loss of personal growth, pleasure, depth of thought, influencing critical thinking skills, etc, etc and wouldn’t a person fill disappointed in not knowing/feeling like they’ve missed the completeness of the interaction? I’m sure that most of use have set a book down away from home and then can’t find it? Needling you as you contemplate how you think the book is progressing to it’s end? How about when you buy a paper back at a garage sale and find missing pages! How could a person not want to finish a good book -well there was one book I got about 1/4 way through and said not to my liking…I wonder, don’t children spend quite time at summer camp, joyfully reading?/// How many of us picked up a paper back belonging to our Mother and became curious of what words lie beyond the cover? & took the book for a few minutes, exploring the pages? I certainly hope that young people have been exposed to read Bible scripture or their religious books.
    I love the photo, Dave…the shaft of light, illuminating the perfect shade of parchment on the wall…looks like it must be a “Farrow & Ball” paint? Perhaps, Susan likes, “Farrow & Ball” paint?

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