College Students Can and Do Read, but Not as We Might Expect: The New (Il)literacy Myth

To a professor for one half-century and historian of literacy, today’s incessant cavils that college students either “aren’t reading” or “can’t read” are reminiscent of the early 1960s’ repeated rediscoveries that “Johnny can’t read” and about children’s “death at an early age.” The New York Times publicizes a fallacious “There’s a Very Good Reason College Students Don’t Read Anymore” (Malesic 2024), while The Atlantic leads with “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books” (Horowitch 2024). Assistant editor Rose Horowitch contradicts herself in declaring, “To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.” As if to prove the point, the higher education daily media ask, “How Much Do Students Really Read?” (Alonso 2024) and “Is Reading Over for Gen Z Students?” (Stripling 2024) (emphases mine).