Book bans, chatbots, pedagogical warfare: What it means to read has become a minefield.
But maybe the real problem is that children aren’t being taught to read at all. As
test scores have slumped — a trend exacerbated by the disruptions of Covid — a long-smoldering conflict over teaching methods has flared anew. Parents, teachers and administrators have rebelled against widely used progressive approaches and demanded more emphasis on phonics. In May, David Banks, the chancellor of New York City’s public schools, for many years a stronghold of “whole language” instruction,
announced a sharp pivot toward phonics, a major victory for the “
science of reading” movement and a blow to devotees of entrenched “balanced literacy” methods.
The reading crisis reverberates at the higher reaches of the educational system too. As corporate management models and zealous state legislatures refashion the academy into a gated outpost of the gig economy, the humanities have lost their luster for undergraduates. According to reports in The New Yorker and elsewhere,
fewer and fewer students are majoring in English, and many of those who do (along with their teachers) have turned away from canonical works of literature toward contemporary writing and pop culture. Is anyone reading “Paradise Lost” anymore? Are
you?
Book bans, chatbots, pedagogical warfare: What it means to read has become a minefield.
www.nytimes.com
This bothers me everyday. I Think about declining reading scores everyday.
Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.
Carl Sagan
"To give to every citizen the information he needs...to understand his duties to his neighbors and country...to know his rights..."
