Apparently, there was a recent article in the NYT about the sharp decline in reading skills among students. Several of my corporate-world friends have asked me (a literature teacher) about it. My response?

No shit. We've been shouting this from the rooftops for years now. I've been teaching literature for 21 years now. I started to notice a decline in reading ability about 15 years ago. It started to fall off the cliff about ten years ago. For most students, that is. A handful of others are still reading well above grade level. It's the middle group that's hollowed out. Seventy-five percent of my students struggle with Dogman books. Twenty-five percent breeze through The Sound and the Fury like it's nothing. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. But not much. I'm glad the general population is finally paying attention to this problem. It's a little late, and I'm sure that they'll draw all of the wrong conclusions from it. But still, it's nice that they are noticing. "Hey, that building is on fire," they notice after it's been burning for hours. "Some sprinklers when the fire was small would have been helpful." Geee... Thanks.