N
EDUC ATION
Nicholas Dames has taught
Literature Humanities, Colum-
bia University’s required great-
books course, since 1988. He
loves the job, but it has changed.
Over the past decade, students
have become overwhelmed by
the reading. College kids have
never read everything they’re
assigned, of course, but this
feels different. Dames’s students
now seem bewildered by the
thought of finishing multiple
books a semester. His colleagues
have noticed the same problem.
Many students no longer arrive
at college—even at highly selec-
tive, elite colleges—prepared to
read books.
This development puzzled
Dames until one day during the
fall 2022 semester, when a first-
year student came to his office
hours to share how challenging
she had found the early assign-
ments. Lit Hum often requires
students to read a book, some-
times a very long and dense
one, in just a week or two. 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.
“My jaw dropped,” Dames
told me. The anecdote helped
explain the change he was see-
THE ELITE COLLEGE ing in his students: It’s not that
STUDENTS WHO CAN’T they don’t want to do the read-
ing. It’s that they don’t know
READ BOOKS how. Middle and high schools
have stopped asking them to.
To read a book in college, it helps to have
read a book in high school. I n 1 9 7 9 , Martha Maxwell,
an influential literacy scholar,
BY ROSE HOROW I TCH wrote, “Every generation, at
some point, discovers that stu-
dents cannot read as well as
14 ILLUSTRATION BY MASHA KRASNOVA-SHABAEVA
Dispatches
they would like or as well as one familiar explanation for the Mike Szkolka, a teacher and whole texts. An additional
professors expect.” Dames, who decline in reading aptitude: an administrator who has spent 49 percent combine whole texts
studies the history of the novel, smartphones. Teenagers are almost two decades in Boston with anthologies and excerpts.
acknowledged the longevity of constantly tempted by their and New York schools, told But nearly a quarter of respon-
the complaint. “Part of me is devices, which inhibits their me that excerpts have replaced dents said that books are no
always tempted to be very skep- preparation for the rigors of col- books across grade levels. longer the center of their cur-
tical about the idea that this is lege coursework—then they get “There’s no testing skill that ricula. One public-high-school
something new,” he said. to college, and the distractions can be related to … Can you teacher in Illinois told me that
And yet, “I think there is a keep flowing. “It’s changed sit down and read Tolstoy? ” he she used to structure her classes
phenomenon that we’re notic- expectations about what’s said. And if a skill is not easily around books but now focuses
ing that I’m also hesitant to worthy of attention,” Daniel measured, instructors and dis- on skills, such as how to make
ignore.” Twenty years ago, Willingham, a psychologist at trict leaders have little incen- good decisions. In a unit about
Dames’s classes had no problem UVA, told me. “Being bored tive to teach it. Carol Jago, leadership, students read parts
engaging in sophisticated dis- has become unnatural.” Read- of Homer’s Odyssey and supple-
cussions of Pride and Prejudice ing books, even for pleasure, ment it with music, articles,
one week and Crime and Pun- can’t compete with TikTok, and TED Talks. (She assured
ishment the next. Now his stu- Instagram, YouTube. In 1976, me that her students read at
dents tell him up front that the about 40 percent of high-school least two full texts each semes-
reading load feels impossible. seniors said they had read at ter.) An Advanced Placement
It’s not just the frenetic pace; least six books for fun in the English Literature teacher in
they struggle to attend to small previous year, compared with Atlanta told me that the class
DANIEL SHORE,
details while keeping track of 11.5 percent who hadn’t read THE CHAIR OF used to read 14 books each
the overall plot. any. By 2022, those percentages GEORGETOWN’S year. Now they’re down to six
No comprehensive data had flipped. ENGLISH or seven.
exist on this trend, but the But middle- and high- DEPARTMENT, Private schools, which pro-
majority of the 33 professors I school kids appear to be TOLD ME THAT duce a disproportionate share
spoke with relayed similar expe- encountering fewer and fewer HIS STUDENTS of elite college students, seem
riences. Many had discussed the books in the classroom as well. HAVE TROUBLE to have been slower to shift
STAYING
change at faculty meetings and For more than two decades, FOCUSED ON away from reading complete
in conversations with fellow new educational initiatives EVEN A SONNET. volumes— leading to what
instructors. Anthony Grafton, such as No Child Left Behind Dames describes as a dis-
a Princeton historian, said his and Common Core empha- concerting reading-skills gap
students arrive on campus with sized informational texts and among incoming freshmen. But
a narrower vocabulary and less standardized tests. Teachers private schools are not immune
understanding of language at many schools shifted from to the trend. At the prep school
than they used to have. There books to short informational that I graduated from five years
are always students who “read passages, followed by ques- ago, I took a Jane Austen course
insightfully and easily and write tions about the author’s main my senior year. I read only a sin-
beautifully,” he said, “but they idea— mimicking the for- a literacy expert who criss- gle Austen novel.
are now more exceptions.” Jack mat of standardized reading- crosses the country helping
Chen, a Chinese-literature pro- comprehension tests. Antero teachers design curricula, says T h e i s s u e t h a t Dames
fessor at the University of Vir- Garcia, a Stanford education that educators tell her they’ve and other professors have
ginia, finds his students “shut- professor, is completing his stopped teaching the novels observed is distinct from the
ting down” when confronted term as vice president of the they’ve long revered, such as problem at community col-
with ideas they don’t under- National Council of Teach- My Ántonia and Great Expec- leges and nonselective uni-
stand; they’re less able to persist ers of English and previously tations. The pandemic, which versities, where some students
through a challenging text than taught at a public school in Los scrambled syllabi and moved arrive with literacy and com-
they used to be. Daniel Shore, Angeles. He told me that the coursework online, accelerated prehension deficits that can
the chair of Georgetown’s Eng- new guidelines were intended the shift away from teaching leave them unable to com-
lish department, told me that to help students make clear complete works. plete collegiate courses. High-
his students have trouble stay- arguments and synthesize In a r e c e n t E d We e k achieving students at exclusive
ing focused on even a sonnet. texts. But “in doing so, we’ve Research Center survey of schools like Columbia can
Failing to complete a sacrificed young people’s abil- about 300 third-to-eighth- decode words and sentences.
14-line poem without suc- ity to grapple with long-form grade educators, only 17 per- But they struggle to muster the
cumbing to distraction suggests texts in general.” cent said they primarily teach attention or ambition required
NOVEMBER 2024 15
Dispatches EDUC ATION
to immerse themselves in a rather students miss out on survey of Harvard seniors approximated by reading a
substantial text. some of the classics—Crime found that they spend almost five- or even 30-page excerpt.
Faced with this predica- and Punishment is now off the as much time on jobs and According to the neuroscientist
ment, many college profes- list—but read the remaining extracurriculars as they do Maryanne Wolf, so-called deep
sors feel they have no choice texts in greater depth. And, on academics. And thanks to reading—sustained immersion
but to assign less reading and crucially, the change will give years of grade inflation (in a in a text—stimulates a num-
lower their expectations. Vic- recent report, 79 percent of ber of valuable mental habits,
toria Kahn, who has taught Harvard grades were in the including critical thinking and
literature at UC Berkeley since A range), college kids can get self-reflection, in ways that
1997, used to assign 200 pages by without doing all of their skimming or reading in short
each week. Now she assigns less assigned work. bursts does not.
than half of that. “I don’t do Whether through atro- Over and over, the pro-
the whole Iliad. I assign books “IT’S NOT LIKE phy or apathy, a generation fessors I spoke with painted
of The Iliad. I hope that some I CAN SAY, of students is reading fewer a grim picture of young peo-
of them will read the whole ‘OKAY, OVER books. They might read more ple’s reading habits. (The his-
THE NEXT
thing,” Kahn told me. “It’s THREE WEEKS, as they age—older adults are torian Adrian Johns was one
not like I can say, ‘Okay, over I EXPECT YOU the most voracious readers— dissenter, but allowed, “My
the next three weeks, I expect TO READ but the data are not encourag- experience is a bit unusual
you to read The Iliad,’ because THE ILIAD,’ ing. The American Time Use because the University of
they’re not going to do it.” BECAUSE Survey shows that the over- Chicago is, like, the last bas-
Andrew Delbanco, a long- THEY’RE NOT all pool of people who read tion of people who do read
time American-studies profes- GOING TO books for pleasure has shrunk things.”) For years, Dames has
DO IT.”
sor at Columbia, now teaches over the past two decades. A asked his first-years about their
a seminar on short works of couple of professors told me favorite book. In the past, they
American prose instead of a that their students see read- cited books such as Wuthering
survey course on literature. ing books as akin to listening Heights and Jane Eyre. Now, he
The Melville segment used to to vinyl records—something says, almost half of them cite
include Moby-Dick; now his that a small subculture may young-adult books. Rick Rior-
students make do with Billy professors more time to teach still enjoy, but that’s mostly a dan’s Percy Jackson series seems
Budd, Benito Cereno, and students how they expect them relic of an earlier time. to be a particular favorite.
“Bartleby, the Scrivener.” There to read. The economic survival I can imagine worse prep-
are some benefits—short works But it’s not clear that of the publishing industry arations for the trials, and
allow more time to focus on instructors can foster a love of requires an audience willing thrills, of Lit Hum. Riordan’s
“the intricacies and subtleties of reading by thinning out the and able to spend time with an series, although full of frothy
language,” Delbanco told me— syllabus. Some experts I spoke extended piece of writing. But action and sometimes sopho-
and he has made peace with the with attributed the decline of as readers of a literary maga- moric humor, also cleverly
change. “One has to adjust to book reading to a shift in val- zine will surely appreciate, engages in a literary exercise
the times,” he said. ues rather than in skill sets. more than a venerable indus- as old as the Western canon:
The Columbia instructors Students can still read books, try is at stake. Books can cul- spinning new adventures for
who determine the Lit Hum they argue—they’re just choos- tivate a sophisticated form of the petulant gods and com-
curriculum decided to trim ing not to. Students today are empathy, transporting a reader promised heroes of Greek
the reading list for the cur- far more concerned about their into the mind of someone who mythology. But of course there
rent school year. (It had been job prospects than they were in lived hundreds of years ago, or is a reason that, despite millen-
growing in recent years, even the past. Every year, they tell a person who lives in a radi- nia of reinterpretations, we’ve
while students struggled with Howley that, despite enjoy- cally different context from the never forgotten the originals.
the reading, as new books ing what they learned in Lit reader’s own. “A lot of contem- To understand the human
by nonwhite authors were Hum, they plan to instead get porary ideas of empathy are condition, and to appreciate
added.) Like Delbanco, some a degree in something more built on identification, iden- humankind’s greatest achieve-
see advantages to teaching useful for their career. tity politics,” Kahn, the Berke- ments, you still need to read
fewer books. Even the best- The same factors that have ley professor, said. “Reading is The Iliad—all of it.
prepared students have prob- contributed to declining more complicated than that, so
ably been skimming some of enrollment in the humani- it enlarges your sympathies.”
their Lit Hum assignments ties might lead students to Yet such benefits require
for years. Joseph Howley, spend less time reading in the staying with a character through Rose Horowitch is an assistant
the program’s chair, said he’d courses they do take. A 2023 their journey; they cannot be editor at The Atlantic.
16 NOVEMBER 2024
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