public schools

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Why Don’t Americans Read?


I can answer that with a simple statement, “I don’t know.”

Something has happened within our culture which keeps American, without regard to education, from reading. The most obvious sign of this is how many newspapers have ceased publication in the past 25 years along with formerly daily newspapers which have become three day a week papers.

I am tactile person who likes nothing better than to read a daily newspaper in its newsprint form. Until my wife and I moved to Eastern North Carolina, on Sunday mornings, I went out and bought both the Boston Globe and the New York Times. We sat at our dining room table pouring over these publications with delight. Newspapers’ ability to sustain publication relies entirely on its circulation. As across the nation those numbers have decreased, the ability of the newspaper to get much needed advertising has also declined. Newspapers, even though they print news that you may have heard 12 hours earlier on the television, offer something that television news reports do not; their coverage of a story is far more complete. Additionally, television news cannot give the same amount of news as a newspaper does. But this is where the non-reading public comes into play. I suspect that a large portion of the American public will say that they do not have time to read a newspaper. But for most of them the real truth is that they just cannot be bothered to do so.

Fifty years ago, in any city of any size that you ventured to, had at least one bookstore, and, in most cases, there were multiple bookstores. In larger cities the used bookstores were easy to find. That is not true any longer. My wife and I are avid book readers. My wife reads them electronically and I buy the hardcover book. Either way, we read a lot of books. But independent bookstores are shuttering their operations more and more. There simply exists little call for what they sell. Where I now live, Barnes & Noble is my refuge.

I know from the experience of having worked for many years in public school systems, that reading is a major part of their curriculum. But for some reason, people who go through those systems may be looking at reading as something they did not like to do in primary and secondary schools and so why should they continue?

And then there are our public libraries. If such figures existed, I suspect the foot travel into these institutions has dramatically decreased. And those books are free which means that people on limited budgets cannot use the excuse of not having the funds to buy books.

I read a lot as a way to escape the realities of our world into the world of fiction. I also subscribed to the Boston Globe’s electronic version just to stay abreast of the news of a state I called home for most of my life but also because it is the only daily source of that type of news available to me here in Eastern North Carolina. We have two “daily” newspapers, as their masthead declares, that come out 3 days a week, have about 8 pages of mostly advertising, and are overpriced, $2.00 per copy.

It is my belief that Americans have lost sight of the value in reading the printed word. The last time to general public got into a reading frenzy was when the various Harry Potter books were published. Since then, everyone has reverted back. Are we heading to being a country of illiterates? To some degree, yes. Are we becoming a country which is ill-informed of the news of the nation and the world? Most definitely!

I have no idea how to get the general public back to reading except to write my blog about what I see as a problem. And of course, my blog, and others like it, appeal mostly to people who read.

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Governor Ron DeSantis: Officially a Fascist


I am appalled by Florida’s new law regarding books in public (K-12) schools. Such a law harkens back to pre-1930 U.S. education when religious oranizations decided what children and adults should read. But even worse, it sounds like 1938 Germany when there were massive book burnings when the government decided what the public could or could not read. That was fascism in action. Please understand that my understanding of such methods and doctrines comes from the fact that I studied U.S. history at Harvard University where I got my master’s degree in that subject. But such history studies depend upon the student’s ability to have an understanding of the world around the United States during its history.

This also reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984 where the government of the United States had become intrusive to the extreme in every person’s daily life.

DeSantis has ordered that “media specialists,” who were once known in public schools as “librarians,” review every book in the school to determine whether there is any objectionable material contained. Objectionable material such as a book a 6th grader was reading in which two boys loved each other. His reaction was one of acceptance which is exactly what we should want of our children in today’s society. So much of the hatred that exists in our country today comes from one group of people deciding that another group are something beneath them.

Florida has also outlawed all A.P. black history classes. This too is what the Nazi’s did when their crusade against Jews, Gypsies, gays, and all groups defined as “undesirables” was put into action. Is this what we are seeing in Florida? It certainly seems so. The Nazis decided that all things connected with these groups must be deleted from the public’s view and they made that happen. This sounds too much like what is happening in Florida!

And while it would be, most likely, a bad decision to put Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence on a K-8 reading list, would it be improper to allow high schoolers to read the books? Shall we then include Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beacher Stowe on such a list because its central characters are black? Or how about the high school senior who decides to do a book report on the biography of Margaret Sanger because she dealt with birth control in the early 20th Century? I can go on and on but I think I have made my point.

I did notice that the books of Raold Dahl were removed from the school library’s shelves that they may be checked for inappropriate material! Are you kidding me! You would have to be extremely ignorant to think that anything said in those books could be offensive for even the youngest grade schooler. And yet, a media specialist my review them.

And who is behind these moves, DeSantis himself? I doubt it. It is my guess, and my opinion, that if you look hard enough you will find that conservative evangelicals are the tail which is wagging the dog here. DeSantis needs this very conservative base to stay in office because Florida is not a deep red state but one which has a large strong liberal party as well.

It may seem odd to compare what is happening to Florida to the Supreme Court’s decision of what pornography is and who can watch it but the parallels are hard to ignore. In each case, a decision on the First Amendment comes into view. I do hope that there is some group in Florida that has taken the torch to fight this law in the Supreme Court on the basis of the First Amendment.

Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. That is a paraphrase but a most appropriate one. In 1925, the Scopes Trial in Tennesse brough a high school teacher to task for daring to teach evolution to his students. This did not sit well with conservative church leaders and their followers. At that time too, Tennessee had passed a law known as the “Butler Act” which barred the teaching of evolution. Behind the trail were fundamentalist Christians. Clarence Darrow, who was the attorney for the defense, eventually lost the case but it brought into the public’s mind what was acceptable to be taught in public schools and the controversy quickly spread across the country.

Must we have another “Scopes'” style trial to deal with this? Are Floridians’ so numb to the political machinations of the Florida State government that they oppose nothing it brings into law? Where is the outrage? Where is good judgement? Certainly not in Florida! Florida has already barred the teaching of black history so what is next? Seminole history?

It is difficult for Americans who have been allowed only a narrow view of history to make good and well-informed decisions. Yes, Ron DeSantis calls himself a Republican but in truth, he is actually a Fascist.!