Why Johnny Won’t Read: Part 1, by Dean Smith

The New York Times posted an article entitled “Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading.”  The article summarizes a report from the National Endowment for the Arts which concluded that young Americans are reading less for fun which closely parallels the decline in reading test scores.  Although reading scores have been improving among elementary aged children, the scores are flat among middle school students and have declined among high school students.  “The data also showed that students who read for fun nearly every day performed better on reading tests than those who reported reading never or hardly at all” (Rich E1).

     The Washington Post, reporting on the same story, summed up the study by stating, “We are doing a better job of teaching kids to read in elementary school. But once they enter adolescence, they fall victim to a general culture which does not encourage or reinforce reading. Because these people then read less, they read less well. Because they read less well, they do more poorly in school, in the job market and in civic life” (Thompson C01).  

     These observations are supported by Schmoker (2006) who stated, “Literacy is pivotal to acquiring  the type of education that is the path to economic and political power. A recent study in England found that the ability to read well is the single best indicator of future economic success” (BBC News, 2002).

     So why aren’t students reading?  In our effort to introduce students to the merits of good literature, we may be turning them off.  In classrooms, we often select what students perceive as long, boring, classic novels that students struggle to read and don’t make any personal connections to.   When English teachers ask students to only read difficult novels that they pick out, then students are most likely not going to become life-long readers.  

     Furthermore, those classic novels that we keep assigning in high school aren’t actually being read.  I saw this played out last year with one of the students I had in American Lit.  Emily was in a homeroom that I was covering, and she was very engaged in reading a novel in the back of the room.  When I asked her what she was reading, she held up a Jodi Picoult book.  I asked Emily how she was able to find time to read that and to read Huckleberry Finn, the assigned novel she was supposed to be reading in class. Emily responded, “I’m not reading Huck Finn.  I just can’t get into it.  And besides, I can’t put this book down.  It is soooo good.”  

     I walked away from that encounter realizing two things.  The first was that Emily, who was in my academic section, was yet another of my many students who wasn’t reading the assigned novel.  Second, I realized that my students will read if given the chance.  Maybe they haven’t given up altogether on reading; they’re just turning up their noses at what I assign.  Stay tuned for Part 2.