Young People Are Reading More Than You

So says McSweeney's in a new essay.

From the site...

A recent survey issued by Scholastic, the 2010 Kids & Family Reading Report, found that 43 percent of the children ages 9-11 believe the most important outcome of reading books for fun is to open up the imagination. 62 percent of the same demographic say they read books for fun “to be inspired by storylines and characters.” For a group whose numbers were clearly dwindling in the 1990s, it is not surprising that the release of an incredibly imaginative story coincided with a dramatic revival or readership.

The clamor for young adult reading programs to “save reading” seems to indicate that kids were reading much more twenty years ago but have recently given it up. This is, of course, not true. In the 1960s, Daniel Fader, a high school teacher and University of Michigan professor, realized none of his students were reading independently and founded the “Hooked on Books.” In the program, he replaced thick anthologies with single copies of novels and used class time for independent reading. In 1985, Richard C. Anderson’s seminal report endorsed by the Commission on Reading, Becoming a Nation of Readers, claimed “Children should spend more time reading.” In 1996 the Standards for the English Language Arts, commissioned by the National Council of Teachers of English and the National Reading Association placed independent reading at the center of their curriculum. Educators have always known reading is important for child development, it has simply been difficult to market literature to this age group. Until Harry Potter.

As Motoko Rich wrote in a 2007 New York Times article “in a way that was previously rare for books, Harry Potter entered the pop-culture consciousness. The movies… heightened the fervor, spawning video games and collectible figurines. That made it easier for kids who thought reading was for geeks to pick up a book.”