Many current elite college students can't read a book

[dilettante]

Nah, it's just Bubble Dwelling.

 

[AnnieA]

Wouldn't you know, you hear a story like this, and of course it's from Fox News. Don't believe it for a second. Of course some kids now a days can't read as well as we had to before computers, video games, and smart phones. But there are a lot of young intelligent minds in college these days. And yes they can read. And would be very insulted if they read that garbage.

Last post here. Clearly the decline in reading comprehension isn't limited to college students.

This is getting hilarious. Hint @Paladin1950 Read beyond the triggering post 2. Maybe ....gasp....even read the original source in The Atlantic.

 

[HoneyNut]

This can't be correct for ALL 12th grade students, only college bound and/or AP students. Many, about half I'm guessing, would not be required to know that in their level of English studies. If it is correct, and that is the expectation for ALL 12th graders, it is setting most up for failure. That's why I'm sure the is not the expectation for all.

I think that was sort of the point of what I was reading -- that headlines that make it sound like young people can't read at all may be misinterpretations of reports of fewer students being able to read at grade level.

Of course if fewer high school kids graduate being able to read at 12th grade level (for college bound or regular), that is not a good thing. But it isn't necessarily an education system producing drooling illiterates that the headlines sometimes imply.

 

[AnnieA]

.... But it isn't necessarily an education system producing drooling illiterates that the headlines sometimes imply.

Nowhere in The Atlantic article is literacy questioned. The problem is the inability to focus on longer written works which is the result of kids entering elite colleges having not been required to do so previously.

 

[HoneyNut]

The problem is the inability to focus on longer written works which is the result of kids entering elite colleges having not been required to read books previously.

I can believe young people have not had as much experience focusing for long periods on reading (or anything else), but I disagree that it is the result of not being required to read books. The books we were required to read in High School were depressing (such as Of Mice and Men) and being required to read just kills the desire to read (in my experience). My senior high school English class in 1973/1974 outright rebelled and refused to read the assigned book (though I read it - The Scarlet Letter - later in life and it was okay).

I'd guess the lack of ability for sustained focus in young people would be related to phones, social media, competing entertainment, tik-toks, over-scheduling/lack of time, and other modern experiences that tend to fracture a person's focus.

The times I would read the most books was in the summer when school was out. The time in my life when I most enjoyed reading dense reading material was when I was living overseas with no TV and pre-computer-age.

I'm not sure how we can give young people today enough unstructured time, though it looks like Finland is starting to limit the kids to 2 hours a day of digital device use.

 

[AnnieA]

....

I'd guess the lack of ability for sustained focus in young people would be related to phones, social media, competing entertainment, tik-toks, over-scheduling/lack of time, and other modern experiences that tend to fracture a person's focus.

....

No doubt that's part of it. It's also the failure of middle and high schools.

Excerpt from the article quoting a Columbia professor:

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 assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes 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 seeing in his students: It’s not that they don’t want to do the reading. It’s that they don’t know how. Middle and high schools have stopped asking them to.​

 

[HoneyNut]

If schools aren't asking for reading that is a pity, though the only positive full book reading I remember from school was in middle school we got to read a book of our choice, then were forced to present a short summary to the class (the mortification of that is why I remember it at all probably, ha!). And I loved it in elementary school when the teacher would read us a chapter a day of young reader type books (such as The Secret Garden).

On the other hand, here is some interesting info from studies in Finland where they also experience the same problem as the US (and most other countries), note that they blame the parents instead of the schools:

The decrease in Finnish young people’s literacy was the fifth largest of all the countries included in the comparison.[1] The decline in literacy is also reflected in the PIRLS study, which measures the skills of fourth-graders.[2] According to studies, the level of literacy has decreased throughout the country, in all socio-economic groups and across genders.​

​

The most significant factor in the development of children’s literacy is the reading habits established at home.[3] The importance that parents’ reading habits have for their children’s literacy has increased. Statistically, the more parents spend time reading at home, the more literate their children are.​

​

However, parents read less than before and fewer parents like to read. Half of fourth-graders’ parents wish they had more time to read.[4] 16% of fourth-graders say that they never actually see their parent or guardian reading a book. The parents of almost every fifth child say that they do not like reading. As the reading of parents decreases, the concern now is that children do not get in the habit of reading since they do not have an example to follow.[5]​

 

[January]

Twenty years ago, Dames’s classes had no problem engaging in sophisticated discussions of Pride and Prejudice one week and Crime and Punishmentthe next. Now his students tell him up front that the reading load feels impossible. It’s not just the frenetic pace; they struggle to attend to small details while keeping track of the overall plot.

Oh. Didn't realize you meant cover to cover literally without breaks. I don't do that nor do I think the professors want their students to do so; they want them to read in a timely manner for assignments and the students are struggling. I'll read for three or four hours in the evening so go through several books a week.

Well, they do want their students to read an entire long, old fashioned writing book in a week - as well as covering reading for their other subjects.

I couldn't ever do that, despite considering myself a reader and being someone who reads books regularly.

I think fair to say most book readers do not read for 3 or 4 hours every evening.

So as I said before,not a college students thing,just a most people thing.

 

[dilettante]

Well, they do want their students to read an entire long, old fashioned writing book in a week

LOL.

Won't read, won't watch a full length video or listen to an entire talk or podcast.

Education by sound bite?

 

[January]

^^ No, that isnt what I said or what the article says.

 

[dilettante]

 

[AnnieA]

I think fair to say most book readers do not read for 3 or 4 hours every evening.

I watch zero TV. I have a smart TV that I use for movies occasionally.

 

[Debrah N.]

It still started with a few for safety, then the rest wanted one. I've also witnessed the parents defending the rest using the safety reasoning.
I agree with the comment of the parents are trying to be friends. Kids will have friends, but they need parents.
My son called me an A-hole when he was a teen. I told him that it was my job to be an A-hole. Into his twenties, he apologized because he realized that he was the A-hole.

More parents should embrace being an A-hole.

 

[January]

I watch zero TV. I have a smart TV that I use for movies occasionally.

But you are not most people. I'm not disputing what you do.

Still fair to say most book reading people do not read for 3-4 hours each night.

 

[VaughanJB]

Many current elite college students can't read a book. Most blamed on tech which has created a short attention span. Students aren't being taught how to read a book either. Problem also seen in AP English classes in high school. One teacher said AP students used to read 14 books a year now it's about 7.

Elite colleges shocked to discover students 'don't know how' to read books: 'My jaw dropped'

One student attending Columbia said she never had to read a book in high school

I'm sure they could read a book, if they sat down to do so.

That said,. things have changed, and attenti0on spans are ever shortening. Which raises the question, if that is the world they live and work in, then what's wrong with it? It makes no sense from our perspective, of course. But so many people believe nonsense they see/read on the internet, so are we any different really?

 

[HermitHogan]

I took a graduate level class in American foreign policy as an elective back in the '90s, and the professor assigned us a book a week to read... books by Robert Dallek and other historians.

I have a stigmatism in one eye and I suffer from ADHD, so there's no way in hell I can read an entire history book in one week. I'd be good to get through it in one semester. I managed to find summaries in the library of most of the assigned books and that's what I read instead... I can't remember where I found them. That was before Wikipedia and other sources for summaries could be found on the Web, which was still in its infancy back then.

So towards the end of the semester the professor confided in us. He said that we didn't need to read the entire book when reading history books; you read the first three chapters and the final chapter. The rest is just filler.

Now you tell us!

 

[Muskrat]

I actually never had to read a book in college. I have read zillions of books…but never told to read one in college. Probably depends upon your degree choice. I have done fine…thank you.