Derek Thompson

A theme of your reporting is that college students can't read entire books because of a pipeline problem. High schools aren't teaching full books. Middle schools are moving away from full books. What role do you think education policy at the middle and high school level is playing here?

When I think back on my time in middle and high school, everything in my English and history classes revolved around a list of books. Like, you got this reading list at the beginning of the year. And it was all full of books. History books, American history, global history, Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, The Bluest Eye. And our education revolved around the text.

When I think back on my time in middle and high school, everything in my English and history classes revolved around a list of books. Like, you got this reading list at the beginning of the year. And it was all full of books. History books, American history, global history, Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, The Bluest Eye. And our education revolved around the text.

When I think back on my time in middle and high school, everything in my English and history classes revolved around a list of books. Like, you got this reading list at the beginning of the year. And it was all full of books. History books, American history, global history, Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, The Bluest Eye. And our education revolved around the text.

Something I'm hearing you say is that books have been slowly decentered, so to speak, in modern education. Like they're no longer the sun around which the education revolves. They're just another planet. Do you have any evidence that books are being marginalized in this way?

Something I'm hearing you say is that books have been slowly decentered, so to speak, in modern education. Like they're no longer the sun around which the education revolves. They're just another planet. Do you have any evidence that books are being marginalized in this way?

Something I'm hearing you say is that books have been slowly decentered, so to speak, in modern education. Like they're no longer the sun around which the education revolves. They're just another planet. Do you have any evidence that books are being marginalized in this way?

That last example is so great because a part of me wants to be very fair to that teacher. Maybe her approach is just better than reading Homer's Odyssey alone. It's more multimedia. It meets students where they're at. It teaches them about a life skill using the media they're already engaged with, YouTube, music videos, music. It approaches the Odyssey as a practical text about life.

That last example is so great because a part of me wants to be very fair to that teacher. Maybe her approach is just better than reading Homer's Odyssey alone. It's more multimedia. It meets students where they're at. It teaches them about a life skill using the media they're already engaged with, YouTube, music videos, music. It approaches the Odyssey as a practical text about life.

That last example is so great because a part of me wants to be very fair to that teacher. Maybe her approach is just better than reading Homer's Odyssey alone. It's more multimedia. It meets students where they're at. It teaches them about a life skill using the media they're already engaged with, YouTube, music videos, music. It approaches the Odyssey as a practical text about life.

And in many ways, the Odyssey was probably first communicated between storytellers as a kind of civics education, right? A practical guide to the values of ancient Greece.

And in many ways, the Odyssey was probably first communicated between storytellers as a kind of civics education, right? A practical guide to the values of ancient Greece.

And in many ways, the Odyssey was probably first communicated between storytellers as a kind of civics education, right? A practical guide to the values of ancient Greece.

This clicks into the final thing that I want to talk to you about, which is that I feel like you and I are circling this idea that education has become more instrumental and fixated on accountability and pre-professional in the last few decades. And this is a shift that has happened both at the level of education policy and at the level of parent and student psychology.

This clicks into the final thing that I want to talk to you about, which is that I feel like you and I are circling this idea that education has become more instrumental and fixated on accountability and pre-professional in the last few decades. And this is a shift that has happened both at the level of education policy and at the level of parent and student psychology.

This clicks into the final thing that I want to talk to you about, which is that I feel like you and I are circling this idea that education has become more instrumental and fixated on accountability and pre-professional in the last few decades. And this is a shift that has happened both at the level of education policy and at the level of parent and student psychology.

Maybe young people are reading less, not because they're less intelligent, but because they are funneling their intelligence toward explicit resume building. And all things equal, if you're a 16, 17-year-old who has two hours free on a Wednesday, you can read for fun or you can practice violin.

Maybe young people are reading less, not because they're less intelligent, but because they are funneling their intelligence toward explicit resume building. And all things equal, if you're a 16, 17-year-old who has two hours free on a Wednesday, you can read for fun or you can practice violin.

Maybe young people are reading less, not because they're less intelligent, but because they are funneling their intelligence toward explicit resume building. And all things equal, if you're a 16, 17-year-old who has two hours free on a Wednesday, you can read for fun or you can practice violin.

And that violin practice is going to directly increase your odds of getting into a good college much more than reading 100 pages of your favorite novel, right? In a way, reading is a very inefficient means of burnishing a resume. It's also... comparatively an inefficient means of getting that next unit of enjoyment compared to, say, watching television or watching some movie on Netflix.