I recently read several articles discussing the new phenomenon of children, teens, and even college students no longer reading complete books as part of their curriculum. This is a trend that began a few years ago and has been getting worse.
When my youngest was a senior in high school a few years ago, he was enrolled in AP Literature. My other kids had taken the class and the books they read were challenging and thought provoking. The teacher who taught them had recently retired when my youngest took the class so he had a new teacher. I was excited to see what books this teacher would assign. When my son showed me the list, my excitement turned to shock as there were hardly any books listed and the reading assignments in general were very short and not particularly noteworthy. Why would an advanced literature class offer such a paltry reading list?
From the articles I read, the answer seems to be that teachers believe students no longer have the attention span to read a book from beginning to end. Instead of assigning an entire book to read, the students are given excerpts to read instead. An excerpt is a great way to get someone’s interest, but it can’t even compare to the full experience of reading. The rise of the excerpt is having profound impacts on students and our universities. Professors have found students are so used to reading excerpts, they can’t read an entire book and struggle with reading comprehension and it is a problem even at our most elite and prestigious universities. My mind is completely blown by this!
What is the solution? It seems to me that our best bet is getting kids to enjoy reading at a young age. I loved books as a kid but I also only had five television channels to choose from! With all of the entertainment available instantaneously for our kids, getting them to read books may be a harder sell than it used to be, but it is incredibly important. My kids are grown, but I love reading to my grandkids and it does my heart good that they want to read books.
What have you found that helps your kids want to read? I would love to hear your ideas!