How do you cultivate a love of reading? These educators have some ideas.

When Alden Jones took to X in July, her post went viral, likely due to her eye-catching first line: “Yes, college students have lost their ability to read.” 

Ms. Jones, an assistant professor at Emerson College in Boston, says reading hesitancy among her young adult students started in the late 2000s and accelerated during the pandemic. The difficult part, she says, is simply engaging students in reading.

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

A professor’s lament on social media about her college students got us thinking about the best way to encourage the joys of reading. To find out more, we asked the experts: teachers.

“They can’t turn their minds fully to the material in the way that [people] used to,” she says.

So what’s the trick to getting young people – and teens and 10-year-olds – to enjoy the act of reading? To stay in the moment long enough to appreciate the feel of paper pages and a cliff-hanger chapter? What can parents and teachers do?

Educators have lots of advice. Ms. Jones says she may launch “reading hours” on campus, in which students can cozy up to a good book. Some people can’t muster the motivation to exercise at home. Maybe a dedicated reading space would pique their interest – and conversations.

“It’s enjoyable and interesting to talk about what’s in the book,” she says. “And it’s not about the stress of a class.” 

Alden Jones reached a point this summer when she needed to share her thoughts with the world. 

She brought her observations to X. Her post went viral, likely due to her eye-catching first line: “Yes, college students have lost their ability to read.”

Ms. Jones, an assistant professor of writing, literature, and publishing at Emerson College in Boston, says reading hesitancy among her young adult students started in the late 2000s and accelerated during the pandemic. During that period, she even noticed her own attention span for books diminishing.

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

A professor’s lament on social media about her college students got us thinking about the best way to encourage the joys of reading. To find out more, we asked the experts: teachers.

The difficult part, she says, is simply engaging students in reading – whether it be of short stories, essays, poems, or novels.

“It’s not that they can’t analyze a sentence,” Ms. Jones says. “It’s that they can’t turn their minds fully to the material in the way that [people] used to.”

So what’s the trick to getting young people – and teens and 10-year-olds – to enjoy the act of reading? To stay in the moment long enough to appreciate the feel of paper pages and a cliff-hanger chapter? What can parents and teachers do?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *