2008 Woodie Awards
Come on, let's feel the love for literacy
Sara Hernandez
Issue date: 4/8/08 Section: Opinion
It's time to face the facts: the lack of reading among young American people is reaching alarming levels.
Only 31 percent of eighth graders and 34 percent of twelfth graders meet the National Assessment of Educational Progress standard of reading "proficiency" for their grade level, according to a study by the Alliance for Excellent Education.
The National Center for Education found that 30 million Americans have a below-basic literacy level, and that 20 percent of adults have the literacy level of a fifth grader - this is below the level needed to enter the workforce.
The majority of the fault lies with the young people themselves.
There are so many distractions in this fast-paced world that people feel they don't have time to sit down in a quiet area to read a book or magazine. At best, they might scan an article or skim through their homework in haste to get on with their lives.
After all, who wants to read when they could be out shopping, or going to the big game? What's the point in reading the book when the movie will be coming out this summer, anyway? Or, who needs to read when we can just buy a book-on-tape or CD and listen?
But, what they don't realize is, reading for pleasure is the mark of a well-educated and informed person. Fiction opens a world of imagination and fantasy, where anything and everything can happen if the author and the reader put their minds in it. Nonfiction is informative and can be both entertaining and educational. Reading helps to improve vocabulary and writing skills, it inspires young people to think in ways they wouldn't before and to do things they had never thought themselves capable of.
This monumental lack of reading seems to be encouraged by parents and educators. Adults are so obsessed with putting their children into sports and other outdoor after-school activities that they have forgotten the simple joy of curling up in a comfortable chair and opening the clean, crisp pages of a good book. They have forgotten the escape that reading gives.
Only 31 percent of eighth graders and 34 percent of twelfth graders meet the National Assessment of Educational Progress standard of reading "proficiency" for their grade level, according to a study by the Alliance for Excellent Education.
The National Center for Education found that 30 million Americans have a below-basic literacy level, and that 20 percent of adults have the literacy level of a fifth grader - this is below the level needed to enter the workforce.
The majority of the fault lies with the young people themselves.
There are so many distractions in this fast-paced world that people feel they don't have time to sit down in a quiet area to read a book or magazine. At best, they might scan an article or skim through their homework in haste to get on with their lives.
After all, who wants to read when they could be out shopping, or going to the big game? What's the point in reading the book when the movie will be coming out this summer, anyway? Or, who needs to read when we can just buy a book-on-tape or CD and listen?
But, what they don't realize is, reading for pleasure is the mark of a well-educated and informed person. Fiction opens a world of imagination and fantasy, where anything and everything can happen if the author and the reader put their minds in it. Nonfiction is informative and can be both entertaining and educational. Reading helps to improve vocabulary and writing skills, it inspires young people to think in ways they wouldn't before and to do things they had never thought themselves capable of.
This monumental lack of reading seems to be encouraged by parents and educators. Adults are so obsessed with putting their children into sports and other outdoor after-school activities that they have forgotten the simple joy of curling up in a comfortable chair and opening the clean, crisp pages of a good book. They have forgotten the escape that reading gives.
Be the first to comment on this story