The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books
Elite college students are increasingly unprepared for reading demands, with educational reforms favoring shorter texts and distractions from smartphones affecting attention spans, leading to less reading and potential empathy decline.
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In recent years, elite college students have shown a marked decline in their ability to read and engage with full-length books, a trend that has raised concerns among educators. Professors, such as Nicholas Dames from Columbia University, have observed that many students arrive at college unprepared for the reading demands of their courses, often having only read excerpts or short texts in high school. This shift is attributed to changes in educational practices, where standardized testing and curriculum reforms have prioritized informational texts over complete literary works. The prevalence of smartphones and social media has also contributed to shorter attention spans, making it difficult for students to focus on lengthy texts. As a result, professors are increasingly assigning less reading and adjusting their expectations. While some educators believe that this trend reflects a change in values rather than skills, the implications for students' literary engagement and empathy development are significant. The decline in book reading among students raises concerns about the future of literature and the ability to cultivate deep understanding and empathy through reading.
- Elite college students are struggling to read full-length books due to inadequate preparation in high school.
- Educational reforms have shifted focus from complete texts to shorter excerpts and informational passages.
- The rise of smartphones and social media has contributed to decreased attention spans among students.
- Professors are adjusting their syllabi to assign less reading and lower expectations.
- The decline in reading may impact students' ability to develop empathy and engage deeply with literature.
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19 commentsOf course for the select few students at the very top, it may be important to drill deep analysis, but the bulk of the citizenry will be better served by developing a personal predisposition towards reading and writing freely [0], as opposed to having someone prod them through facsimiles of literary criticism for a few hundred hours every year.
[0] (Edit: changed from "... toward reading" to "... toward reading and writing freely". The original wording makes it sound like I want to advantage reading over writing.)
> But middle- and high-school kids appear to be encountering fewer and fewer books in the classroom as well. For more than two decades, new educational initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and Common Core emphasized informational texts and standardized tests. Teachers at many schools shifted from books to short informational passages, followed by questions about the author’s main idea—mimicking the format of standardized reading-comprehension tests. Antero Garcia, a Stanford education professor, is completing his term as vice president of the National Council of Teachers of English and previously taught at a public school in Los Angeles. He told me that the new guidelines were intended to help students make clear arguments and synthesize texts. But “in doing so, we’ve sacrificed young people’s ability to grapple with long-form texts in general.”
> Mike Szkolka, a teacher and an administrator who has spent almost two decades in Boston and New York schools, told me that excerpts have replaced books across grade levels. “There’s no testing skill that can be related to … Can you sit down and read Tolstoy? ” he said. And if a skill is not easily measured, instructors and district leaders have little incentive to teach it. Carol Jago, a literacy expert who crisscrosses the country helping teachers design curricula, says that educators tell her they’ve stopped teaching the novels they’ve long revered, such as My Ántonia and Great Expectations. The pandemic, which scrambled syllabi and moved coursework online, accelerated the shift away from teaching complete works.
Hartford Public High School grad can't read
I reference this in my blog post about focus. https://renegadeotter.com/2023/08/24/getting-your-focus-back...
"Twenty years ago, Dames’s classes had no problem engaging in sophisticated discussions of Pride and Prejudice one week and Crime and Punishment the next."
Reading Crime and Punishment alone is estimated to take about 11-12 hours at 300WPM. Then consider your average student is taking 4 or 5 classes per semester? If they all assigned that much reading, that would be 60 hours a week of just reading, not even including time to process what's being read, or write assignments, revise etc.
If the so-called "elite" colleges actually gave a crap, they could easily use their extremely selective admissions process to fight back.
Perhaps the author is a product of the system she is criticizing - so minimal attention span, and no ability to do critical thinking?
There's no way around it: to be able to read books you have to get practice reading books. You have to be able to distinguish between the barren sections that you can go over a bit quicker and the fruitful sections you might need to reread. Above all to read actively.
- Principal Moss, King of the Hill
Mike Judge's satire ages like fine wine.
Related
The Vital Necessity of Old Books (2023)
Joel J. Miller defends reading ancient texts, arguing they provide cognitive diversity, challenge modern biases, and foster critical thinking, essential for innovation and understanding history in contemporary discourse.
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The discredited "three cueing" reading instruction method persists in American schools, leading to ineffective strategies and significant reading proficiency issues, ultimately affecting students' academic success and future outcomes.
Schools are competing with cell phones
Schools are addressing student engagement issues caused by cell phone addiction and COVID-19 effects by enforcing bans, enhancing extracurricular activities, and promoting outdoor learning to foster connections and focus.
In Favor of Reading Aloud
Reading aloud enhances comprehension and engagement, transforms reading into an active experience, combats distractions, and fosters a deeper connection to literature, countering the decline in reader engagement from silent reading.
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American students are struggling to recover from COVID-19 learning setbacks, with significant declines in math and reading, especially among low-income and disabled students, due to absenteeism and funding challenges.