A sad, but not so surprising statistic appeared in the Washington Post this week. "The long, steady decline of literary reading" reports that the reading of classic literature (novels, plays, poems, short fiction) among adults is at a 30-year low, according to research by the National Endowment for the Arts. The research also breaks down who is reading the most and who is reading the least. White women with college degrees seem to be the most literary group, but the numbers don't look good for anybody.
We all know that there are many more opportunities for entertainment and distraction now than in previous generations, so the data make sense. But we also have many more highly educated citizens than ever before, and that isn't necessarily correlating with an increase in literary reading. This fact speaks to the larger problem.
It shows we aren't using the education we have to tackle the challenging ideas and deeper human complexities that literature can offer. The literary arts make us smarter thinkers and better feelers. We improve our capacity to think through scenarios, as well as identify with and become more empathetic toward a wide variety of people.
Our current generation of students claims to be the most tolerant in history, yet many of them haven't developed, because of the decline in reading, the mental and emotional skills to be truly understanding of humanity. We have become faux-sympathizers, claiming a non-judgmental worldview, while avoiding the very tools that give us the qualifications to discern what is worthy of judgment.
Again, this report may not exactly be shocking news in our era of constantly available technology and media, but this should startle us into considering what kind of society we may be becoming. Reading may not change the world anymore, as it did in previous historical eras, but it can change each person individually. And that is the best place to start. Go pick up a book this weekend, and develop a positive habit of engaging with more literary reading.
We all know that there are many more opportunities for entertainment and distraction now than in previous generations, so the data make sense. But we also have many more highly educated citizens than ever before, and that isn't necessarily correlating with an increase in literary reading. This fact speaks to the larger problem.
It shows we aren't using the education we have to tackle the challenging ideas and deeper human complexities that literature can offer. The literary arts make us smarter thinkers and better feelers. We improve our capacity to think through scenarios, as well as identify with and become more empathetic toward a wide variety of people.
Our current generation of students claims to be the most tolerant in history, yet many of them haven't developed, because of the decline in reading, the mental and emotional skills to be truly understanding of humanity. We have become faux-sympathizers, claiming a non-judgmental worldview, while avoiding the very tools that give us the qualifications to discern what is worthy of judgment.
Again, this report may not exactly be shocking news in our era of constantly available technology and media, but this should startle us into considering what kind of society we may be becoming. Reading may not change the world anymore, as it did in previous historical eras, but it can change each person individually. And that is the best place to start. Go pick up a book this weekend, and develop a positive habit of engaging with more literary reading.