David Mehegan, “Young People Reading a Lot Less: Report Laments the social cost,” The Boston Globe, 19Nov2007, A1,A4.

 

OVERVIEW

 

The National Endowment for the Arts has released a 99-page Report, a compendium of more than studies from universities, foundations, business groups and government between 2004 and 2007. Among the findings:

 

• Only 30 percent of 13-year-olds read almost every day.

• The number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure increased from
     9% in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.

• Almost half Americans 18-24 never read books for pleasure.

• The average 15-24 year-old spends 2 to 2½ hours watching TV and 7
     minutes reading.

We know what young people are doing more of: watching television, playing video games, surfing the Web, listening to their iPods, talking on cell phones, and instant messaging their friends. But this new report released (19Nov07) makes clear what they’re doing a lot less of: reading.

 

“This is a massive social problem,” NEA chairman Dana Gioia said…. “We are losing the majority of the new generation. They will not achieve anything close to their potential because of poor reading.”

 

It’s not just the amount of reading that’s troubling these experts, but reading ability as well. Studies found reading scores improving for 9-year-olds, then dropping sharply for 17-year-olds. With only about a third of high school students reading at a proficient level, Gioia explains that their criterion for proficiency is not high: “Proficiency is not a high standard. We’re not asking them to be able to read Proust in the original. We’re talking about reading the daily newspaper.”

 

How are college students doing?  Not much better.

• In 2005, almost 40 percent of college freshmen read nothing at all for
     pleasure.

• 35 percent of seniors read nothing at all for pleasure.

• 28 percent of seniors read less than one hour a week.

• Among college graduates, prose-reading proficiency declined from 40
     percent in 1992 to 31 percent in 2003.

 

Although the studies and this report does not explain why youth reading has declined, Gioia suspects three main reasons:

 

• “First, something has happened in our educational system.

• “Second, we are surrounded by non-stop media, which for the most part
     does not acknowledge reading. When the media make a celebrity of
     J.K. Rowling or Oprah (selects a choice book, it makes a difference).

• “Third, our lives are completely cluttered with a million gadgets.”

 

The report goes on to suggest multitasking as another factor:

 

It found that more than half of middle and high school students use other media most or some of the time while reading, and that 20 percent of the time they spend reading they are also watching TV, playing video games, sending messages, or otherwise using a computer.

 

This article suggests a most important finding of this report: its conclusions as to the economic consequences of poor reading.

 

• 72% of employers rated high school graduates as deficient in writing.

• 38% cited reading deficiency among high school graduates.

• One out of five American workers reads at a lower level than necessary
     to do his or her job.

• Proficient readers more likely to reach management or higher paying
     jobs.

 

Possibly the most striking finding (of this extensive report) is that, regardless of income, levels of reading for pleasure correlate closely with levels of social life, voting, and political activism, participation in culture and fine arts, volunteerism, charity work, and even regular exercise.

 

“The poorest Americans who read did twice as much volunteering and charity work as the richest who did not read,” Gioia said. “The habit of regular reading awakens something inside a person that makes him or her take their own life more seriously and at the same time develops the sense that other people’s lives are real.”

 

While the NEA report offers no fixes, Gioia said he hopes it will wake people up.

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

 

1.  How important do you consider this article, the larger report (which you can read in PDF at www.nea.gov/research/ResearchReports_chrono.html), and this problem of low reading levels?

2.  If important, what do you think schools might do to encourage reading?

3.  What can families do to limit media consumption and bring back reading?

4.  Can youth workers and after-school and recreational programs contribute to a resurgence in youthful reading?

5.  How much non-fiction reading do you do out of curiosity or for personal growth? How much reading for pleasure?

 

IMPLICATIONS

 

1. Only as adults generally regain interest and excitement about good reading will we be able to see any future generational shift toward good books.

2.  This crisis is not upon us for want of good books for children and young adult readers. There is much good current writing being done besides our great literary heritage.

3.  Good reading combines with religious involvement, according to the studies, as factors across socio-economic levels, in avoiding risk behaviors and achieving a healthy quality of life.

 

Dean Borgman   c. CYS