The elite college students who can’t read books
Twenty years ago, Nicholas Dames could engage in sophisticated discussions with his students about Pride and Prejudice one week and Crime and Punishment the next. Now the humanities professor at Columbia University observes that some of his students are bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester, and find it harder to focus on small details while keeping track of each book’s overall plot. “No comprehensive data exist on this trend, but the majority of the 33 professors I spoke with relayed similar experiences,” Rose Horowitch reports. Students at elite institutions seem to be coming to university with a shorter attention span and narrower vocabulary—one student told Dames that at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book cover to cover.
The decline of reading has long been a concern for teachers and parents. In 1976, about 40 percent of high-school seniors said they had read at least six books for fun in the previous year, compared with 11.5 percent who hadn’t read any. By 2022, those percentages had flipped, Rose writes. Is this predicament the result of the smartphone and the internet generation? Or have school curricula, which can over-index on reading comprehension compared with knowledge or engagement, dulled students’ love for the written word? A couple of professors told Rose 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,” she writes.
Today’s newsletter brings you stories about why more students are reading less:
Leadership Development Coach | Career Consultant | Mentor | Certified ICF Coach | Book Nerd | Daily Wordler
1 周This leaves me speechless. I was an obsessive reader as a child, probably read 2 books/week in college (granted, I was an English major!) and still read two books/month now. Having taught college students last Spring, I'm concerned about the inability to sustain concentration and worse, the lack of curiosity. And forget about problem-solving and critical thinking skills... just ask AI? ????♀?
Coach Tiffany Gant is an award winning feature sportswriter and the former Head Volleyball Coach & AP US History Teacher at Central HS.
1 周What counts as “reading a book from cover to cover”? I wonder if they’re including audiobooks. Perhaps, as evidenced by many of the comments here, we’re not adapting to the younger generations’ styles of learning and processing information. None of us who are judging Gen Z and Alpha were raised in a society with this much access to information and technology. And yet we believe we know best on what they should know and how they should learn. I think we’d be better off being more teachable ourselves and listening to Gen Z and Alpha. As a student in grade school, I was taught there are only three learning styles: audio, visual, and tactile. As an educator, I’ve since learned there are actually about 15 styles of learning, maybe more. Imagine being someone who’s primary style of learning isn’t recognized or honored in most classrooms and when you communicate to educators your needs aren’t being met, they accuse you of complaining too much or being lazy. Many of you didn’t even read this entire article and those who did probably only read it because it was less than 5min long.
Owner, simages
1 周Maybe it is that students are lacking encouragement to think for themselves and ask relevant questions. Unfortunately it all about checkung boxes and standardized testing.
Proud Alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, Aspiring Applied Urban Researcher
1 周Yes, but I have always had a question: how does one measure/assess that one has fully absorbed a book's details — even if it'll include illustrations, etc.? ??????
Independent Writing and Editing Professional
1 周If you can't read a book you're not elite. You're just dumb.