Reading Between The Lines: Discussing the Literacy Crisis

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture, you just have to get people to stop reading them." -Ray Bradbury

I played an audiobook for my class this week and asked them to follow along with the text as it was read aloud. This is a preferred strategy for English Language Learner (ELL) students and some students with accommodations. A little over a page into the book, I realized that the audiobook was not following the text but was instead adding and amending sections of the book. Ironically, I had been listening to the audiobook on my way to and from work for a week without reading the physical book, and I had no idea this was happening. The experience highlighted for me an important issue we are currently facing. If we cannot read, we have no idea when we are being deceived. We can have a spirited debate about credible sources, but that is a discussion for another time. 

As a society, Americans are becoming less and less interested in reading and writing. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, “57% of U.S. adults between 16-65 read below proficiency, and 66% of our country’s fourth graders do not read proficiently. This multigenerational challenge impacts all of us, and it is linked to some of today’s most pressing concerns, from economic growth and public health to community safety and civic engagement” (NCES, 2023). In my previous blog, I discussed the use of AI and how, regardless of our reluctance to embrace it, the technology will continue to grow and influence our lives. I discussed how it is supplementing and, at times, replacing the skills of writing and reading. I also stated that it is our responsibility as educators to determine how we can leverage AI to improve students' understanding and mastery of course content. AI is not to blame for all of our hardships as educators. The widespread use of AI is fairly new, but our decline in literacy skills has been occurring for quite some time. 

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.” —A.C. Grayling

The question becomes: why do we place so little value on reading, and what can we do to remind students of its importance? I can hypothesize plenty of reasons why reading has lost its value in today’s society. We used to market reading as a way to explore other countries or cultures, escape reality, enter a world of imagination, or learn about the past to protect our future. Today, social media, video conferencing, and the internet allow us not only to explore new places but also to interact with people from different cultures. We are overwhelmed and overstimulated by the abundance of imaginative videos and games we can access, including the ability to immerse ourselves in fictional worlds through Virtual Reality (VR). The accuracy of Historical texts is increasingly being challenged by even prominent Universities as being biased towards the dominant society of the time. All of these things contribute to the degradation of reading.

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” -Frederick Douglass

Is our decline in literacy skills a marketing issue or an equity issue? During the times of slavery, reading was forbidden for slaves and people of color, and there were harsh consequences for slaves who had learned or were trying to learn to read and write. Women were discouraged from learning to read or attending school until well into the 19th century, and colleges such as Princeton and Yale did not admit women until 1969, even after they were given the right to vote in 1920. In the following years, it was a fight to ensure that people had access to educational resources to become literate and pursue knowledge equitably. Less than 160 years after the end of slavery, many of our youth seem willing to give up their essential freedom and have no concept of the consequences of their indifference. 

A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read. -Mark Twain

What are the implications of a societal decline in literacy? The decline in literacy rates has individual and collective consequences. As an individual, the person who cannot read is unable to defend their rights or identify when those rights are being violated. Functionally illiterate individuals can read and write, but lack the ability to comprehend or use written language in practical contexts. Just as I had no idea the book was being changed while I was listening in the car, an illiterate person has no way of determining whether the description someone gives them of a legal text or policy issue is accurate to what the document actually says. As the middle class shrinks and the gap between the wealthy and the poor widens, so too does the gap between the literate and the illiterate. In 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services touted that it, in response to the 2010 Plain Writing Act, “took complex science writing and distilled it to a 7th-grade reading level, providing their audience with relevant health research updates” (HHS, 2020). It is not realistic to believe that every complex issue could or should be accurately remediated to a 7th-grade reading level. 

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift. —Kate DiCamillo

What can we do as a society and as educators to help emphasize the importance of being literate? The first and most important thing we need to do is remind students that reading is a gift many people have fought hard to secure the right to have. We don’t need to foster a love of reading; we need to emphasize its importance. The second thing we need to do is continue challenging our students' assumptions and opinions, and encourage them to defend those challenges with evidence. Believing something because someone said it is true is not enough. The last thing we need to do is quit lowering the bar in an attempt to provide access. I would much prefer to provide access by translating texts into an appropriate intellectual level in a person's home language than to remediate a text to a level that cannot accurately convey the complexity of an issue in English. There are intelligent and literate people of all nations and cultures who can contribute meaningfully to our society. The standard should not be that you speak English, but our society should promote a hunger for knowledge and a desire for continued achievement, both personally and culturally. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2020) Plain Writing Act Compliance Report. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/hhs-2020-plain-writing-act-compliance-rpt.pdf

Schmidt, E. (2022). Reading the numbers: 130 million American adults have low literacy skills, APM Research Lab. https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). Highlights of the 2023 U.S. PIAAC Results. Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/2023/national_results.asp