I received an interesting email from a teacher, Carrie M. Santo-Thomas, who writes on Substack called “The Atlantic Did Me Dirty.”
Santo-Thomas is responding to an article in which she was interviewed by Rose Horowitch, who writes for the Atlantic, about the dying number of students not willing to read longer novels in college. After reading the article in the Atlantic and then Santo-Thomas’s rebuttal, I have a clearer opinion about this issue. Having taught AP Literature for years, we read around six books per year and these books were classics.
Horowitz contacted Santo-Thomas to ask her opinion of students lack of stamina to read longer texts or novels in college for her article. Students feel overwhelmed, and professors are stumped. Horowitch, revealed that “…During the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to [a professor’s] office to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told [the professor] that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover.”
Santo-Thomas states: “She attributes undergrads’ lack of reading stamina to lowered expectations in high school literature curricula, specifically arguing that limiting full-length novels and replacing long-form content with excerpts and summaries has weakened readers’ constitutions. She, in turn, ascribes these instructional choices to the oppressive presence of standardized testing and the Common Core. And cell phones, always cell phones.”
Santo-Thomas believes Horowitch’s article has a “frighteningly narrow definition of what constitutes worthwhile literature. Passing references to Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment, and even my unit about The Odyssey confine literary merit to a very small, very old, very white, and very male box.”
(I tried to read Crime and Punishment once, but I did not finish it).
The texts that most students do not like to read are the canonical classics. Yep! I believe that is true. As much as I love most of the classics, many students do not want to read them, but when I taught a Unit on such classics, like Frankenstein, they liked the discussions and plot line of the stories. I think it is hard for any student to read anything for an extended period. Many are not used to sitting and reading. Audible has help somewhat.
Santo-Thomas points out, “While professors at elite universities sound the alarm over Gen Z undergrads not finishing Les Miserables because they are uninterested in reading a pompous French man drone on for chapters about the Paris sewer system, my colleagues and I have developed professional toolboxes with endless other ways to inspire our students to read about justice, compassion, and redemption.” Dang, I loved reading Les Miserables (seriously, one of my favorites), but she is probably right. It was not until I was older that I read and enjoyed the novel.
Santo-Thomas spews more by saying: “Gen Z and Gen Alpha don’t cow to authority for authority’s sake. They simply won’t do things they don’t want to do, and I actually kinda love that. The rising young generations want texts that matter to them, that reflect their lives and experiences.”
Today, many teachers are choosing modern texts that are engaging. When I taught 10th-grade Literature Circles, students were given the choice of texts such as:
- Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
- House of Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, Science Fiction, Dystopican
- Left To Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza, Non-fiction Autobiography
- The Rent Collector by Camron Wright, Fiction-based on real events
- The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, Classic, this is an old book, but students liked it.
We read A Tale of Two Cities as a class. I am sure that some of them did not read the book, but they still learned a lot of life lessons from it, and I had exciting activities that engaged them. When I did surveys at the end of the year, many students said they enjoyed that unit.
Another point that Santo-Thomas made was that “One often overlooked hurdle that I brought up with Horowitch was the impact of language evolution on reading comprehension and comfort. Linguistically, the dialect of English spoken by contemporary adolescents is rapidly moving further away from the vernacular of the canonical works we ask them to read.”
I believe this is true, too. I did not fully understand older texts until I read them in my 20s and 30s. I love these texts, such as Jane Eyre, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and others. I appreciated Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales only because I had to study them in my Master’s course, but I am so glad for that. But, this is probably because I am an English teacher.
Santo-Thomas teaches The Odyssey and one of the main reasons is because she found a translation of The Odyssey that resonates with her readers. She states: “Contemporary translators have shifted their mindset from one of preserving tradition, to one of illuminating narrative and purpose. Homer wanted his audiences to be both entertained and shepherded into the culture.” Her chosen text has been translated by Dr. Emily Wilson.
Santo-Thomas believes that culturally, we do not value reading. I think that is true in high school, but I believe that some come back to reading later in life. High school is so busy for most. Kids are focused on sports, dances, fitting in, socializing, and reading takes a back seat.
I love these sentences that Santo-Thomas writes in the last few paragraphs:
“In practice, teachers have always balanced various standards and testing with a familiar degree of disruption to the important work of building practical literacy skills. The never-ending cycle of new initiatives and projects outlasted by tough-as-nails veteran teachers is the oldest trope in the faculty lounge…Teachers are thus charged with retraining kids to love books. It’s hard, but it’s working.”
This is so TRUE! We keep at it!
Lastly: “Are the panicked professors expecting -or implying- that their students should be giving everything the close-reading treatment? Are the professors clearly communicating appropriate expectations? In my sophomore honors class, I invest time in teaching my students how to build their understanding over several readings of a scene, chapter, or poem at various degrees of scrutiny and analysis, and that is an investment I consistently see returns on.”
As teachers, we are constantly finding ways to differentiate what we teach to the ever-changing environment and fast-paced world we live in. Engaging students in novels that teach empathy for others, or engage in worthwhile discussions to help students be better human beings are what most teachers are trying to do. Life lessons. Remember when we worried if tablets would take over books? Next year it will be something else. If you have time, read Santo-Thomas’s entire article and compare it to the Atlantic.
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