Yet “elite school students” may not have the mental power and attention span to read books.
The provocative title of last week’s essay in The Atlantic,” The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books”, definitely attracted clicks and evoked the expected level of anger. But the title of the content,” To publish a book in school, it helps to have read a book in great school”, disdainfully points the finger at the wrong aggressor.
There are some items that can only be discovered if you live your entire life with youth in a contemporary American high school. And to be being good, I’m glad professors at prestigious universities like Columbia and the University of Virginia are ultimately acknowledging the depressing fact that our children’s brains have been completely contaminated by the modern spigot of triviality they continuously consume.
As you can tell, high school English professors would love to attribute more books and reading. They may be happy to show their kids their irrational tendencies. They may be excited to have kids read the texts they assigned.
But they ca n’t and they know it.
It’s not due to a” change in values” or to No Child Left Behind or Common Core, or even worse. High school English teachers are in the pits, observing what scientists and editors will merely learn in months or years.
For instance, teenagers then keep their telephones on all night. Why? Therefore, they never miss a information, no matter what occasion it is. Teenagers who are obsessed with zombies wo n’t be rushing to read Sophocles or Jane Austen any time soon.
Additionally, they are aware that if more novels were assigned, there would be several online resources that would help students avoid having to read a book from cover to cover. They request ChatGPT to sum up a guide. They use Spark Notes. They test various AI species to complete whatever scientific work they are asked to do.
How annoying is it to request a book reading for a contemporary student?
Riding a bike in New York City, or even on a school college, takes true focus to avoid a dangerous motion. However, where I live in the central valley of California, teenagers are frequently riding bikes along long straight streets while extremely staring at their phones. In my remote suburb, I can see teenagers riding horses doing the same thing.
And yet, we still assume that these same children, who ca n’t ride a bike or horseback, will squat in a corner and read a book for hours. One of the most surprising and presenting findings of contemporary academic research is that teens are more likely to learn a novel at the age of thirteen than at the age of seventeen. One of my closest friends lately observed that” My boy used to be a voracious reader — a few books a month. And then we gave him a phone and the reading stopped” . ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,
Along these same lines, journalists really know what’s coming next. Many high school students then admit that their attention spans are so short and brittle that they have given up watching movies in theaters immediately. Unsurprisingly, there was a statement last year that young Americans were using translations when streaming content because it made it easier for them to stay glued to their phones while together watching a movie or TV show.
Which brings me to yet another demoralizing statistics point about American students ‘ rapidly deteriorating mental states. Pew Research released alarming conclusions about American instructors two weeks ago, revealing that 58 % of high class instructors said their kids had “little to no attention” in learning. A staggering, though fully predictable, 72 pct say cellphone diversion is a major problem.
Only a fourth of educators say they are “very happy” with their work. Few of these were American professors, according to some sources.
All of this disconcerting information confirms a disturbing fact about our time: a world-historical retreat in intellectual and communication capacity is quickly destroying the trustworthy centers of significance in human life.
Envision a future filled with people who are unable to enjoy higher society, movies, and books. Imagine a future filled with lifeless residents who are unsure of how to explain the complexity of their thoughts or how to discuss their thoughts ‘ details. Imagine a future where the one quality of human nature, which gives rise to science, art, and all the delicate trappings of human culture itself, has been undermined by an addiction to an endless supply of pointless digital droppings.
Those of us who describe ourselves as “educational romantics” watch the class as an exciting amalgam — part Delphic oracle, piece launchpad. We see learning as a process of growing both mentally and emotionally. Learning makes the world deeper and richer by inviting our issues and, ideally, rewards the desire for knowledge.
What we have now is not an extension of the home, but a ossifying diminishment of our children’s capability to reason, picture, and converse. It raises a basic but dreadful question: Is it too soon?