You have all likely heard about the NEA study on American reading that was released this week. Liz has a good post on it and Gwenda rightfully points to the Washington Post article that raises a few good questions. (Do read the comments at Gwenda's for some further interesting thoughts.) The gist of the report is that reading in America is on the decline - all kinds of reading this time not just literary reading. From the Post:

The trend is particularly strong among older teens and young adults, and if it is not reversed, the NEA report suggests, it will have a profound negative effect on the nation's economic and civic future.

First, I don't doubt this is true but I do wonder how anyone can be surprised. Reading is not a valued way to spend one's time in American society. Sports is valued, work is valued, hell, mowing the lawn is valued but reading? Unless it's the newspaper or something you have to read for school or work then by and large it is not considered a good productive use of your time. I have probably been asked thousands of times over the years why I am reading. I was asked during lunch hour, when I could have been working or socializing, during car trips, when I could have been observing the scenery, and at home (by my stepfather or roommates) when I could have been doing something - anything - else. How many lifelong readers have heard some variation on "she always has her nose in a book - why isn't she outside?!" more than a few dozen times? Reading for no stated purpose - simply to read - is confusing to a lot of people, and that is because we are not in a society that values self learning.

(I have to mention my most recent birthday where my husband, mother and brother all bought me books - among other things. They do know me best after all! My husband's father and step mother dropped by and gave me a lovely cherry wood bud vase and in the midst of explaining where they bought it I was told "and it's not a book! Isn't that great?!" This was something to proud of they though - they found me something other than a book. I always wonder why people think I have too many books. Is there such a thing as too many books? And if I clearly like books, then why do you think I shouldn't have more?)

When I was young I had the fortune of attending an elementary school that stopped all assigned study twenty-five minutes before the final bell for Reading Time. The whole school stopped to read. In the younger classes this meant books were read aloud but in the others you could read whatever you wanted. No homework was to be done - no writing - only reading. You could read comics, novels, a how-to guide, anything. Everyday from kindergarten through 6th grade we read and because we needed to read we all spent class time in the library during the week at some point checking out books. Plus the library was in the middle of the school and had no walls - you had to walk past it or through it to get pretty much anywhere. So from the earliest age all of us were taught about libraries and reading for fun. I'd love for someone to do a study of kids who went through that school (or others like it) and see how their adult reading habits match with country.

Here is an interesting statistic on adolescent reading (again from the ):

The percentage of 9-year-olds who say they "read almost every day for fun," the NEA report notes, rose slightly, from 53 percent to 54 percent, between 1984 and 2004. During roughly the same time period, average reading scores for 9-year-olds rose sharply. But the percentage of 17-year-olds reading almost every day for fun dropped from 31 percent in 1984 to 22 percent in 2004, with average reading scores showing steady declines.

The reason those 17 year olds aren't reading for fun is because they have a ton of homework I bet and also because by then they have been forced to analyze literature to death and hate it. (You all know my still lingering animosity for The Great Gatsby, courtesy 10th grade American Lit.) I do wonder who the report thinks is fueling The Gossip Girls craze - although that might be younger teens. But still by 17 in America you are either going to college or not and if you are then you are busy working your ass off to pass tests and if you aren't you are largely done and don't know what the hell you are going to do. There is very little time for figuring things out and taking a broader view of your life and slowing down to enjoy it as a high school senior. We love "No Child Left Behind" don't we? Instead we are kicking them to curb as adults who work dead end jobs. If we gave every kid a legitimate chance to find themselves they might enjoy a good book again. They might even think they are allowed too.

In the end I can't help but agree with the thoughts raised at Gwenda's that a big part of this appears to have to do with economics - who has money for books and who doesn't. But I know that I was raised with no money for books - they were birthday and Christmas gifts or they were from the library and that was how it was. Still though, my parents were both huge readers and consequently so are my brother and I. So poor doesn't mean you don't read - you just have to see reading, you have to come from a place (like my school) or people (like my parents) that think reading is important. In my house it was perfectly normal to read while eating breakfast and lunch and even to read while watching tv. My father took books to the beach and to work and my mother has one right now in every bathroom of her house, plus beside her bed, plus beside the couch...you get the idea. They never told me to stop reading. It was other family members who didn't get my reading habit and now, a lot of them are amazed that I seem to know so much about so many different things (that would be because I read!!!)

The bottom line in this whole NEA study though is the plan for the future, which no big surprise is not exactly rolling off of everyone's lips:

The NEA report comes without recommendations. This choice was deliberate, Gioia said, because "no one institution" can solve the reading problem alone.

"What we're trying to do is say: These are the facts. This is a framework to understand the issues. Let's talk about it," Gioia said.

You have to be kidding me. What a lovely little cop-out. (And so bloody typical.) No, you can't solve it but you can offer the obvious solution: LIBRARIES!!!!! Upgrade the damn libraries in every poverty stricken public school in this country. Upgrade them in every rural community, in every city combating urban violence, on every Indian reservation, on every small dot on the map that is struggling to hold on. For God's sake go rebuild and reopen the libraries on the Gulf Coast. Make libraries showpieces for literacy, hire children's and tween and teen librarians to set up programs that get kids into libraries to find books. Increase funding to Boys and Girls clubs that includes Bookmobile visits - bookmobiles to YMCAs and YWCA after school programs. Find out where kids are and get books to them. Sponsor events where kids and adults get free books if they visit the library together. Make libraries community centers, the place that is happening in small towns and big cities and the suburbs.

Make libraries the most important and significant buildings we have.

Recreate Alexandria.

And then you will see. Make reading a valuable part of how we live and then you will see the world change.

Thank you for the study NEA, now get off your ass and put the money where it needs to go. Want to save America's future? It's at the library. Always, forever, eternally, the future of any society is at the library.