I'm an English teacher fortunate enough to have kids (7th -10th graders) that will read entire novels with me - each year we read four a year together. I wish it were more but I also teach them how to read. Once they lift the hood of the book and I show them how the engine was built, they're more inclined to respect the work and want to read more. God bless them...I know how fortunate I am to have them as students.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a must in 9th grade. Peace Like a River for 10th graders plus Grapes of Wrath. The Wednesday Wars and The Outsiders are very popular with 8th graders. Heart of a Samurai, Holes, and Refugee are great for 7th graders. Others: Up from Slavery, Straw into Gold, Mockingbird, Wonder, The Hiding Place, The Flamboya Tree. Hows that?? Hope you read and enjoy these as much as we do.
All wonderful books. As a private tutor, I've often found that once you have them engaged in the story, they feel a want to continue reading that particular story. It is finding books once they leave school that grabs their attention away from other things that can be a challenge.
Outsiders look on and think — why are American schools/teachers/admins/school boards sleepwalking into disaster? Why aren’t they addressing the obvious problems that seem like they have the power to address?
Obviously, you can’t change kids’ home environment and social media/internet/video game use, but you do get them for 7-8 hours a day, 5 days a week. That’s significant.
So why aren’t schools being strict with:
All phones get locked in Yondr Pouches and kids get detention if they open them.
All tablets and Chromebooks are gone. Back to the paper and pencils and books that reigned supreme for decades.
Isn’t there something that can be done to stem the decline? Why aren’t schools addressing the reading crisis?
This is heartbreaking, but not shocking. I retired from teaching public school 5 years ago and the difference between students of 25 years earlier with my final classes, was dire. Interestingly, several years after the advent of using iPads and Chromebooks all day long at school was the beginning of the end of any real reading. I’m not a Luddite, but the whole “tech is our future and we want our kids prepared for their future jobs”, was shortsighted to say the least.
;Perhaps the reason people don't read is because they've never learned how to read. No one ever read to them, parents, teachers, aunts & uncles, grandparents. They don't use language in communicating with their closest friends. Most of them cannot hold a conversation of more than 3 minutes or one martini. Vocabularies consist of 4-letter Anglo-Saxonisms which they do not hesitate to use even with their elders. I'm 95 yrs ol and read constnatly, both fiction and non. I do find I enjoy older fiction more than the current stuff. Auste, Hardy, Trollope. Gaskell, even Dickens. Read and re-read and then again..
Back in the mid-1970's to 1990, I read during my commute in public transit. I was not alone and we often commented on one another's book--"Is this any good?". "I read that. It was good." "If you enjoyed this, you may enjoy that." Unfortunately, reading on electronic devices (Kindle, tablet, phone) inhibits that kind of interaction because we can't see what others are reading. Note: This was back when I saw the same people around the same time on the train and we tended to have a "favorite" train car.
Another change is the lack of magazines featuring short stories or novellas. Or paperbacks that were reasonably priced and easily fit in a pocket or purse. Much as it was made fun of, "Reader's Digest" was in almost every middle-class home (frequently found in the bathroom). It offered a variety of articles and features, easily read during TV commercial breaks which most of us now fast-forward through. Think of these magazines as a "gateway drug" to long form reading..
I agree that reading as a habit that your children witness is important. I would add, however, that reading aloud to them from birth is likely even more important.
I started a year-long reading project in part to reclaim my brain from the screen. My rules for myself are as few Kindle books as possible, and just keep with the schedule. (@Ted Gioia’s 12-Month Course for those interested) So far it’s working. I’m alternately depressed that I’d fallen so far and elated that it’s making a difference. But I have to try to pay less attention to Substack—not easy!
I am in a bubble of people who love to read and had no idea it was so bleak. I taught tenth grade English at our co-op and a number of students finished To Kill a Mockingbird weeks early because they reported not being able to put it down. Great literature still has power to compel human minds and behavior. May good books make their way into open hands.
The statistic about only 38% of adults reading even one book a year shocked me. I probably average a book a week, and still it doesn’t feel like enough. And yet, I also get it. Life is fast, fragmented, and increasingly lived in the margins of attention.
I resonate deeply with the call to model reading. While it’s rare I get to sit down with a physical book in a way that’s obvious to my kids, I do listen to Audible constantly when I’m on walks, while driving, while taking out the trash. And I love that my son now asks if the AirPod in my ear means I’m listening to a book. When I say “yep!” and he rolls his eyes, I take that as a win. The seed is there.
Thank you for this honest and needed reminder. Reading isn’t just an intellectual act — it’s a transmissible condition, like you said. Let’s keep spreading it.
I've read that the decline in male reading can be linked to publishers heavily catering to women over the last decade (at least!). Men don't want to read the same novels that women prefer, and a high percentage of current authors (published by the Big Five) are women who write what women like to read. Plus, most guys (it seems) prefer darkened basements lit only by the glow of their favorite gaming device.
Agreed. The current fiction market is heavily dominated by romance novels and “chick lit”. The vast majority of reviewers on Goodreads are women. I think modern culture also deems reading and intellectualism to be “feminine” traits. 50-100 years ago men used to pride themselves on being literary and well read and now it’s like… the dumber you are, the more masculine you are.
I love it, endorse it. But, still, we're doomed. I'm resigned to the fact that my library will be seen by the generations to follow as only some conveniently stored toilet paper.
It's ironic that there has never been a time when classic literature is more freely available than ours, yet fewer people are reading. I can read hundreds of the greatest books ever written, for free or pennies, but I guess with younger people they can't compete with TikTok and Fortnite.
I was a voracious reader as a kid and teenager in the 90s - early 00s. My Dad was also a big reader, his bedroom had wall to wall bookcases like the castle library in Beauty and the Beast, lol I would literally just hang out in his room a lot and browse books… mostly history, philosophy, science fiction.
Once I got a smartphone after college, I struggled. The phone was more appealing to my ADHD brain. I kept setting a 12 books a year goal every year on Goodreads and every year failing to read even one book. For like a decade.
Last year I discovered that ebooks work better for me. While I may like the vibe of paper books better, ebooks satisfy my brain’s need to “be on my phone”; I can rent ebooks from the library without having to physically go to the library and without having to remember to return them; and they’re infinitely more portable. I bring my phone everywhere with me, and as a man, I don’t carry a purse and am not always carrying my briefcase or backpack, and few books fit in pockets. So no more sitting at the doctor or the bus stop like “man I wish I brought my book”. I’m going to have no problem at all reading 12 books this year and probably will exceed it!
I wonder, for those young people who do read, how do they read? Traditional books, ebooks, audiobooks? That may make a difference.
I'm an English teacher fortunate enough to have kids (7th -10th graders) that will read entire novels with me - each year we read four a year together. I wish it were more but I also teach them how to read. Once they lift the hood of the book and I show them how the engine was built, they're more inclined to respect the work and want to read more. God bless them...I know how fortunate I am to have them as students.
What books are you reading with your students? One or two in particular that stand out?
To Kill a Mockingbird is a must in 9th grade. Peace Like a River for 10th graders plus Grapes of Wrath. The Wednesday Wars and The Outsiders are very popular with 8th graders. Heart of a Samurai, Holes, and Refugee are great for 7th graders. Others: Up from Slavery, Straw into Gold, Mockingbird, Wonder, The Hiding Place, The Flamboya Tree. Hows that?? Hope you read and enjoy these as much as we do.
All wonderful books. As a private tutor, I've often found that once you have them engaged in the story, they feel a want to continue reading that particular story. It is finding books once they leave school that grabs their attention away from other things that can be a challenge.
In our one room school would start the afternoon reading a chapter of a classic novel.
I have a perhaps naive question.
Outsiders look on and think — why are American schools/teachers/admins/school boards sleepwalking into disaster? Why aren’t they addressing the obvious problems that seem like they have the power to address?
Obviously, you can’t change kids’ home environment and social media/internet/video game use, but you do get them for 7-8 hours a day, 5 days a week. That’s significant.
So why aren’t schools being strict with:
All phones get locked in Yondr Pouches and kids get detention if they open them.
All tablets and Chromebooks are gone. Back to the paper and pencils and books that reigned supreme for decades.
Isn’t there something that can be done to stem the decline? Why aren’t schools addressing the reading crisis?
This is heartbreaking, but not shocking. I retired from teaching public school 5 years ago and the difference between students of 25 years earlier with my final classes, was dire. Interestingly, several years after the advent of using iPads and Chromebooks all day long at school was the beginning of the end of any real reading. I’m not a Luddite, but the whole “tech is our future and we want our kids prepared for their future jobs”, was shortsighted to say the least.
;Perhaps the reason people don't read is because they've never learned how to read. No one ever read to them, parents, teachers, aunts & uncles, grandparents. They don't use language in communicating with their closest friends. Most of them cannot hold a conversation of more than 3 minutes or one martini. Vocabularies consist of 4-letter Anglo-Saxonisms which they do not hesitate to use even with their elders. I'm 95 yrs ol and read constnatly, both fiction and non. I do find I enjoy older fiction more than the current stuff. Auste, Hardy, Trollope. Gaskell, even Dickens. Read and re-read and then again..
Back in the mid-1970's to 1990, I read during my commute in public transit. I was not alone and we often commented on one another's book--"Is this any good?". "I read that. It was good." "If you enjoyed this, you may enjoy that." Unfortunately, reading on electronic devices (Kindle, tablet, phone) inhibits that kind of interaction because we can't see what others are reading. Note: This was back when I saw the same people around the same time on the train and we tended to have a "favorite" train car.
Another change is the lack of magazines featuring short stories or novellas. Or paperbacks that were reasonably priced and easily fit in a pocket or purse. Much as it was made fun of, "Reader's Digest" was in almost every middle-class home (frequently found in the bathroom). It offered a variety of articles and features, easily read during TV commercial breaks which most of us now fast-forward through. Think of these magazines as a "gateway drug" to long form reading..
I agree that reading as a habit that your children witness is important. I would add, however, that reading aloud to them from birth is likely even more important.
"The solution? For God’s sake, just read."
Indeed!
I started a year-long reading project in part to reclaim my brain from the screen. My rules for myself are as few Kindle books as possible, and just keep with the schedule. (@Ted Gioia’s 12-Month Course for those interested) So far it’s working. I’m alternately depressed that I’d fallen so far and elated that it’s making a difference. But I have to try to pay less attention to Substack—not easy!
I have the same "problem" Cheryl... but don't give up!!!
I am in a bubble of people who love to read and had no idea it was so bleak. I taught tenth grade English at our co-op and a number of students finished To Kill a Mockingbird weeks early because they reported not being able to put it down. Great literature still has power to compel human minds and behavior. May good books make their way into open hands.
Have you heard or read George Steiner's ideas and crusade for literacy during much of the 20th century? Most of his documentation was pre-internet.
This one landed hard. And true. Thank you, Joel.
The statistic about only 38% of adults reading even one book a year shocked me. I probably average a book a week, and still it doesn’t feel like enough. And yet, I also get it. Life is fast, fragmented, and increasingly lived in the margins of attention.
I resonate deeply with the call to model reading. While it’s rare I get to sit down with a physical book in a way that’s obvious to my kids, I do listen to Audible constantly when I’m on walks, while driving, while taking out the trash. And I love that my son now asks if the AirPod in my ear means I’m listening to a book. When I say “yep!” and he rolls his eyes, I take that as a win. The seed is there.
Thank you for this honest and needed reminder. Reading isn’t just an intellectual act — it’s a transmissible condition, like you said. Let’s keep spreading it.
You keep using that word, doomscrolling. I think I need to go read a book.
I've read that the decline in male reading can be linked to publishers heavily catering to women over the last decade (at least!). Men don't want to read the same novels that women prefer, and a high percentage of current authors (published by the Big Five) are women who write what women like to read. Plus, most guys (it seems) prefer darkened basements lit only by the glow of their favorite gaming device.
Agreed. The current fiction market is heavily dominated by romance novels and “chick lit”. The vast majority of reviewers on Goodreads are women. I think modern culture also deems reading and intellectualism to be “feminine” traits. 50-100 years ago men used to pride themselves on being literary and well read and now it’s like… the dumber you are, the more masculine you are.
I love it, endorse it. But, still, we're doomed. I'm resigned to the fact that my library will be seen by the generations to follow as only some conveniently stored toilet paper.
Jeff, great post! I started seeing this while I was still teaching. We need to create reading groups in our churches.
It's ironic that there has never been a time when classic literature is more freely available than ours, yet fewer people are reading. I can read hundreds of the greatest books ever written, for free or pennies, but I guess with younger people they can't compete with TikTok and Fortnite.
I was a voracious reader as a kid and teenager in the 90s - early 00s. My Dad was also a big reader, his bedroom had wall to wall bookcases like the castle library in Beauty and the Beast, lol I would literally just hang out in his room a lot and browse books… mostly history, philosophy, science fiction.
Once I got a smartphone after college, I struggled. The phone was more appealing to my ADHD brain. I kept setting a 12 books a year goal every year on Goodreads and every year failing to read even one book. For like a decade.
Last year I discovered that ebooks work better for me. While I may like the vibe of paper books better, ebooks satisfy my brain’s need to “be on my phone”; I can rent ebooks from the library without having to physically go to the library and without having to remember to return them; and they’re infinitely more portable. I bring my phone everywhere with me, and as a man, I don’t carry a purse and am not always carrying my briefcase or backpack, and few books fit in pockets. So no more sitting at the doctor or the bus stop like “man I wish I brought my book”. I’m going to have no problem at all reading 12 books this year and probably will exceed it!
I wonder, for those young people who do read, how do they read? Traditional books, ebooks, audiobooks? That may make a difference.