#103. Are Schools Destroying the Joy of Reading?

Federally mandated school changes may underlie the decline of reading interest and ability.

Randen Pederson, CC

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Dear friends,

Here are some moderately disturbing headlines I have come across relatively recently:

• Fewer Parents Are Reading Aloud to Kids. [Education Week, June 12, 2025.]

• New Research Reveals That Parents Are Losing the Love of Reading Aloud. [HarperCollins Report, April 30, 2025.]

• Among Many U.S. Children, Reading for Fun Has Become Less Common. [Pew Research Center, Nov. 12, 2021.]

• Why Kids Stop Reading for Fun by Age 9. [Lifehacker, July 28, 2023.]•

• Why Kids Aren’t Falling in Love with Reading. [The Atlantic, March 22, 2023.]

• Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class. [NY Times, Dec. 12, 2025.]

• The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books. [The Atlantic, Oct. 1, 2024.]

• The Nation’s Report Card Shows Declines in Reading Scores. [NAEP Report, Jan. 29, 2025.]

Research Findings Behind the Headlines

Here are some of the research findings referenced in the article noted above.

Surveys conducted by HarperCollins in the UK found that that the percentage of parents who reported reading regularly to children under four years old declined from 64% in 2012 to 41% in 2025. The 2025 survey also revealed that young parents—born between 1997 and 2012, known as Gen-Z—were more likely than older parents to agree with the statement, “Reading is more a subject to learn than a fun thing to do.”

The HarperCollins surveys also found that the percentage of parents reporting that their children (ages 5-13) “have too much homework” to read books for fun increased from 25% in 2012 to 49% in 2025.

National Assessment of Education Progress surveys (known as the Nation’s Report Card) have revealed consistent declines in reading ability, for U.S. 4^th and 8^th graders (the only grades tested), ever since 2012. [For more on this, see Letter #78.]

A survey by researchers Perillo & Newman found that U.S. high school English teachers assigned an average of just 2.7 books per year in English classes in the 2023-2024 school year, compared to an average of 4 per year in 2008-2009.

A U.S. national survey by Scholastic revealed a rapid falloff in reading interest between the ages of 8 and 9, with 40% of 8-year-olds (end of 2^nd grade) reporting a love of reading contrasted with just 28% of 9-year-ods (end of 3^rd grade), along with even further decline in love of reading after that.

Although not a systematic survey, Atlantic journalist Rose Horowitz found that college professors, even at elite institutions such as Columbia University, report that students are increasingly unwilling or unable to read whole books assigned to them in literature classes, so fewer books are being assigned.

Evidence that Changes in School Policy Are at Least Partly to Blame

All the headlines and survey findings above pertain to studies in the U.S. or (in the case of the HarperCollins survey) the U.K. As I reported in Letter #51 and Letter #69, massive government-mandated school “reforms” took place in both of these nations in the 2010s, which greatly reduced teachers’ abilities to use their own wisdom and direct experience to guide their teaching by mandating a uniform curriculum and high-stakes testing. These changes began to take place in the U.S. in 2010 and in the U.K. in 2014.

The “reforms” led to an increase in a “skill and drill” mode of teaching, aimed at increasing scores on standardized exams and away from methods more likely to generate genuine interest and pleasure. You can, with standardized tests, assess a student’s ability to read a paragraph and answer some questions about what that paragraph said, but, as one teacher put it in a conversation with Atlantic reporter Rose Horowitz, “There’s no testing skill that can be related to… Can you sit down and read Tolstoy?” Whether it’s Tolstoy or popular authors of books for younger children, the intellectual stimulation and fun comes from the whole book, not from single-paragraph passages.

These “reforms” no doubt help explain why teachers began to assign fewer full books to students in their classes and why students began increasingly to view reading as something you do for a test rather than for fun, enlightenment, or intellectual engagement.

When I think about my own school days, some of my most pleasant memories are of books I read as school assignments. It was common then, beginning in about 4^th or 5^th grade, for teachers to ask us to read and write a report on a book of our own choosing. The teacher had to approve the choice, as a real book, and teachers often offered suggestions of books they thought would interest us. School librarians also helped us find books we would like. This was generally the only homework we were assigned in elementary school, except for occasional creativity-promoting assignments to write a poem or short story at home. We never carried worksheets or textbooks back and forth between school and home.

So, I am suggesting, the school “reforms” beginning in the 2010s sucked the fun out of reading, making it a chore rather than a pleasure. From this perspective, it is not surprising that the biggest decline in joy of reading, found in the Scholastic survey, occurs between the end of second grade and the end of third grade. At most U.S. schools, third grade is the first year of high-stakes testing in reading, so that’s when the skill-and-drill mode of teaching begins to hit hard.

In both the U.S. and the U.K. some of these harmful school changes began in the early to mid 2000s, as schools were already under pressure from governments to show evidence of improved scores on standardized tests. This may help explain the survey finding that younger parents—those who would have been schoolchildren in the 2000s and 2010s—were less likely than older parents to say they enjoyed reading or read regularly to their children.

I’m convinced that the so-called education “reforms” are the cause not just of a decline in the joy of reading but also of the decline in reading ability (see my discussion of this in Letter #78). You become a good reader by reading a lot and being really engaged in the reading, not by forced, boring drill and testing.

It should also be intuitively obvious that the increase in forced reading instruction on little children in kindergarten, and the truly crazy forced instruction in preschools, has contributed to a decline in reading enjoyment and ability. But, if intuition isn’t enough, see my Letter #40 for research evidence that this is so.

Concluding Thoughts

Yes, I know, the decline in reading is probably not just a result of the changes made in classrooms over the past 15 to 20 years. It seems quite likely that other modes of media, especially those available on the Internet and the increasing array of entertainment available on television, have partly replaced reading as pleasurable pursuits. Another thought to consider is that children have been kept increasingly busy with extra-curricular activities and homework, leaving them ever less time to read for fun. In this sense, the decline of reading for fun can be compared to the decline of free play. Many kids don’t have time for it. And many adults, especially parents, don’t either. Yet, the evidence is very strong that changes in what happens in the classroom is playing a big role.

And now, what are your thoughts about all this? Have your experiences as a parent or teacher or general observer led you to a theory about the decline of reading beyond the ideas suggested here, or consistent with those suggestions? This Substack is in part a forum for discussion, and your experiences, ideas, and questions are valued and treated with respect by me and other readers. They add to the value of these letters for everyone.

With respect and best wishes,

Peter