Don’t read that for gratification

November 23rd, 2007 | Category: Florida Education Blog

possibly, like, it’s only considering we’re in the newspaper trade, but, like, we find ourselves particularly prone to visions of the Apocalypse when we read studies that document, like, the decline in the number of kids engaged in, like, real reading. The latest: A National Endowment for the Arts report released that week. There are so many signs of a doomed planet in that thing, we don’t know where to start.

But how about that: In 1984, 31 percent of 17-year-olds read nearly every day for fun; in 2004, only 22 percent did. Or that: A 2005 survey found 65 percent of

college freshmen read little or nothing for satisfaction. Game by, man! Game by! Okay, to be fair (and perhaps to be charitable, since it’s Thanksgiving weekend), there are all kinds of complicating factors to consider, like how we all read differently than we used to (for instance, like how all of you are reading that blog instead of curling up with Harry Crews’s “Scar Lover” or Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”) For nuance, check out that Washington Post story here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter; Times photo, Bill Serne

Original post by Jeff Solochek

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