Commentary
Suppose you asked a movie critic whether they watched the latest blockbuster movie they critiqued in their review. “No,” they reply, “but I saw the two-minute trailer, so that’s just as good as seeing the whole movie.” They go on to explain that they don’t have time to watch entire movies, but they more than make up for it by checking out a wide variety of trailers.
Would you trust this critic to accurately review new movies? Probably not. So why do we allow our schools to de-emphasize the importance of reading books.
According to a recent article in Education Week, it’s become increasingly rare for K–12 students to read entire books in school. Instead, teachers assign individual chapters and articles. After all, one might argue, there’s little point in reading an entire Shakespearean play such as Romeo and Juliet when skimming a 10-page summary accomplishes the same thing….