A “Students Don’t Read” Rant

Yes, some discrete “students don’t read” observations are true. And, this discourse is easily weaponized with harmful implications.

Perpetuating “students don’t read” amplifies deficit narratives about learners’ academic practices and intellectual pursuits, and whether those learners are in kindergarten or in college.

Perpetuating “students don’t read” disrespects the professionalism and dedication of educators, across disciplines and grade-levels, who help students learn to read their words and worlds.

Perpetuating “students don’t read” disregards the fundamental benefits of schools as institutions of public learning; despite imperfections and often a lack of resources, our schools provide dedicated learning environments that encourage students’ continuous engagement with texts in a community of learners.

Perpetuating “students don’t read” is often a ploy to blame distractions like technology or “screen time,” reifying deterministic and pessimistic narratives about disconnection and young people’s inability to meaningfully use, produce, and relate to media.

Perpetuating “students don’t read” betrays an ignorance about literacy in favor of a reductive understanding of reading and what it means to grow as a reader.

Because here are a few things we know about literacy.

Literacies are everyday practices, rooted in culture, encouraged by families, and also developed in more formal academic settings.

Literacies are expansive, expressed across a wide variety of civic, religious, communal, and educational settings.

Literacies are mediated by different languages, customs, and technologies. As language practices, and cultural norms, and digital technologies change, so too do our learners’ multimodal literacies.

Please, please, please let’s remember that:

A student struggling to comprehend a text, struggling to read, is also a learner with many literacies.

A student resistant to reading, refusing a book, is also a learner with many literacies.

A student who may not want to read what’s assigned in school, who may not display conventional behaviors of academic performance, is also a learner who will share their many literacies with trusted friends and mentors.