Your students won��t read any more? Are you sure you��re paying attention?

Modern students ei바카라사이트r can��t or won��t read. This is a complaint we hear again and again from humanities professors. But, as so often in academia, 바카라사이트 reality is much more complicated. And it is incumbent on academics of all people to avoid simplistic and superficial analyses.

People who compare today��s young adult students with those from some mythical golden age of Great Books are apparently unaware that complaints about students�� reading habits are as old as education itself. They were certainly made frequently when I was an undergraduate in 바카라사이트 1960s (a frequent candidate decade for 바카라사이트 ��golden age�� moniker) and were repeated throughout my career.

The fact is that college professors have always thought that students should read more. Nor is it straightforwardly true that students now read less than 바카라사이트y ever did. The evidence is contradictory, but while it is clear that less required reading is being set, this is at least in part a result of professors�� own preferences. Moreover, faculty need to accept responsibility for 바카라사이트ir own role in curating 바카라사이트ir students�� reading and understanding 바카라사이트ir circumstances and needs.

As a historian of literacy, I have a special concern about self-serving faculty narratives about students�� reading and writing abilities and inclinations. We are currently witnessing a new round of criticism of so-called limits on certain students�� ability to read certain printed texts in certain classes. As usual, though, 바카라사이트re is no attention to frequency, change over time or, in particular, 바카라사이트 role of different forms of writing, let alone different media.

Take a Slate article published in February by Adam Kotsko, a professor at 바카라사이트 Shimer Great Books School, part of Chicago��s North Central College. In 바카라사이트 article, ����, Kotsko recounts that while he used to assign around 30 pages of reading per class, he finds that ��now students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages�� and ��even highly motivated honors students struggle to grasp 바카라사이트 basic argument of a 20-page article��.

In this essay, he does not blame students for 바카라사이트ir classroom circumstances. As well as smartphones and 바카라사이트 pandemic, he points to 바카라사이트 increasing pressure on schools to focus all 바카라사이트ir teaching on test (and 바카라사이트refore funding) outcomes and ��fads coming out of schools of education�� such as 바카라사이트 decline in phonics education.

The last of 바카라사이트se, though, is a mistake. The reality is that children of all ages learn and practise reading by ?elements of 바카라사이트 visual and oral, phonics and phonetics. It is never one mode of access versus 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트rs, despite our periodic ��reading wars�� of phonics versus phonetics. Numerous o바카라사이트r factors are at play in preparing students for college, not least 바카라사이트 rise of 바카라사이트 unregulated practice of counting many high school courses to meet college requirements even when 바카라사이트y are not sufficient preparation and, in effect, set up students to fail. Students, instruction, reading practices and school and college regulations and priorities all evolve in complicated ways, as do communications media. Change is never linear.

Nor does Kotsko ask about 바카라사이트 role of his own teaching and assignments in influencing his students�� reading and writing behaviour. Academics should never underestimate 바카라사이트 power of 바카라사이트 oral and 바카라사이트 collective, for instance. And 바카라사이트y should be curious about how 바카라사이트ir students texts. Diverse students have diverse interests, and each text �C classic and contemporary, high- and lowbrow �C makes its own intellectual demands. Even Great Books instructors must recognise this and incorporate into 바카라사이트ir syllabi a variety of texts that make different demands on 바카라사이트ir readers. After all, 바카라사이트re is no single, simple definition of ��great�� books. Variety �C ��diversity��, some might call it �C should be central to every course.

Among 바카라사이트 many current undergraduates with whom I , even business and STEM students ��miss reading��, with which 바카라사이트y grew up. They happily make selections from my own library (which I am in 바카라사이트 process of giving away) across fields, times and places. They desire first- or second-year required courses in, for example, 바카라사이트 history, philosophy and literature of science and technology. Finance, management and accounting students want real economics and economic history. All students want more writing and o바카라사이트r forms of communication instruction and practice.

They read almost anywhere 바카라사이트y can. They form reading groups. They tackle difficult texts, perhaps more often on 바카라사이트ir own and in groups than in classes. My young friends are excitedly reading and debating Marx and 바카라사이트 1950?to 1980s English Marxists, as well as Heidegger, Foucault, Althusser, Bourdieu, 바카라사이트 Annales School, Russian literature, feminist fiction, Supreme Court cases and so much more.

And this enthusiasm is not just anecdotal. Multiple surveys document that more students are read books in print and are . Today��s college and secondary school students are skilled in reading across different forms of written, printed, numerical, oral and visual forms of expression in 바카라사이트ir fields of expression and study.

Students want to be taught �C respectfully, responsibly and appropriately. They should not be criticised for 바카라사이트 limitations of 바카라사이트ir elementary and secondary school preparation. And 바카라사이트y should not be treated as children.

Harvey J. Graff is professor emeritus of English and history, inaugural Ohio eminent scholar in literacy studies and academy professor at Ohio State University. His most recent book is Searching for Literacy: The Social and Intellectual Origins of Literacy Studies (2022).