Getting everyone on board for literacy

Brian Maher, Nebraska's education commissioner, reads a book to a group of mostly 3-year-olds Monday as he and others launched a statewide project to boost reading skills of pre-kindergarteners. The kickoff was at an Educare of Omaha at Indian Hill, 3110 W St., on Oct. 30, 2023. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

While doing research for a book, I came across the story of a man who, despite his inability to read, had what appeared to be a normal and successful life: graduated from high school, worked at a longtime, steady job, paid his bills, raised a family … all while hiding that he was illiterate, compensating as best he could including declining work promotions that required reading. 

But when his community launched a new literacy program in its schools, he showed up at a public meeting, rose from his chair and in great detail shared his story, including the internal travails of his secret, with a fearless, out loud honesty, not to diminish the importance of reading — after all, he had done OK without it — but rather the opposite: To advocate for the proposition that no young person should ever leave high school without being able to read.

His story has stuck with me, especially when I read earlier this fall that the Nebraska Department of Education will employ a $55 million federal grant to boost reading across the state. The department said the big bucks will be used to “focus on a number of proven strategies including providing professional development, improving family literacy, providing high quality instructional materials, utilizing tutoring and extended learning opportunities outside of school hours, and working towards reducing chronic absenteeism.”

Others are already at it, doing the work, promoting reading across the state, including the Nebraska State Literacy Association, which sees “equitable access to literacies for individuals of all ages and diverse communities as a basic human right.” Another group at the good guys table is the Nebraska Literacy Project, a collective combining the talents and wisdom of the Education Department, Educational Service Units, state colleges and universities, school districts and foundations to advocate for student reading.

Among the Nebraska Literacy Project’s five “tenets” is one underscoring the importance of “… community literacy initiatives.…” To which this space says bravo. Schools and boards of education and state departments of education are, as they should be, on the frontlines in combating reading deficiencies. 

Literacy in general, however, is more than professional educators’ responsibility. It’s society’s. If we want our children to read, maybe we adults should shut off the television and put down our own devices (e-books obviously exempted) and model what a reading household, a reading state and a reading nation looks like. 

Literate American adults … grownups who can read …don’t do it as much as they used to. That’s according to research from at least three groups: the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Education, the latter possibly on the chopping block when the government changes hands in January. 

The math on reading is clear. Adult Americans read fewer books than we used to. Nor are the numbers a dredge from the distant past. Every five years the National Endowment for the Arts conducts surveys which reveal the reading habits of adults. In 2022, the latest data indicated that less than half (48.5%) of adults said they read at least one book in the previous year. Five years earlier the number was 52.7%. In 2012 it was 54.6%.

If you’re keeping score at home, you’re right. You don’t have to read a book to be a reader. Essays, newspapers, magazines, blogs, etc., they all count. I suppose one could even include social media posts as reading. This space, however, would not. Full stop.

Plus, reading a book from front to back requires increased focus, language development, perseverance and a type of thinking that weighs evidence, discerns differences and sees the parts, the whole and the thematic nuances of an entire narrative. Book reading requires a particular skill set but can develop one, too.

If you’re looking for suspects in the diminished reading habits among students and adults, go ahead, blame social media and the internet. Throw in television and radio if you like. But reading can coexist with our consumption of other media, even such modern examples such as TikTok and Instagram. The problem is finding the right balance, placing a priority on what’s important.

So kudos to those taking up the reading challenges in Nebraska’s schools. Mark Twain said the person who can read books and doesn’t has no real advantage over the person who can’t read them. Meanwhile, for those outside a K-12 classroom, let a young person catch you reading a book and when they ask, tell them — even without the supporting numbers — it’s what adults do.