What are students reading these days, if at all?

Teaching is not always exciting and stimulating in class, with great intellectual ideas and perspectives bouncing back and forth. There are times when a professor can be quite exasperated at having to face the reality that many students, even graduate students, simply do not read.

On the first day of class, it has been my practice to ask students what they have been reading, as a way of self-introduction. By knowing what they are reading, I would be able to gauge what levels of abstractions their minds are capable of, or perhaps simply to check their English and literary proficiency.

“Tell me, what books have you been reading in the last two months?” Strangely, silence. Well, either they are not reading at all or they are not too proud of what they have been reading.

So I extend the period to the last six months. One year? Two years? A few titles start to come up. Nothing impressive—mostly self-help or New Age “inspirational” books.

To save myself from that familiar feeling of frustration, I persist in lowering the bar. “Please write down on a piece of paper the author or the title of one great book you have read in your lifetime.”

Once in a lucky semester, one or two students would stand out with a list of a few worthy titles. As for the rest, what they scribble down are books that have been required reading in high school or college, that they cannot even summarize in one complete sentence.

Then I give my famous speech: How can we be called “learned” if we are not reading? If we don’t read, we can’t write.

I have tried to understand this perennial problem for many years. Students of the pre-Internet era often used the “no-money-to-buy-book” excuse, which I would counter with, “As enrolled students, you have full access to the university library.”

Nowadays, libraries have become obsolete for some. But although on the Internet 24/7, students still do not read books that, with only a click of the mouse, may be downloaded for free (for example, www.ccel.org).

I sometimes wonder if I should just give up asking what students have been reading to avoid being disappointed.

But how will my students, who are training to be professors of education, be able to give lectures on life and learning if they do not even know one book written by Leo Tolstoy or Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy, John Steinbeck or Ernest Hemingway, if they have not read one book by John Dewey or Alfred North Whitehead, Howard Gardner or Robert Sternberg, Steven Pinker or Edward de Bono?

Because I feel it is my duty to harp on the importance of reading for my students, it is common to hear me say: Reading deepens our thoughts and widens our points of view. Without words at the back of our minds, thinking is limited. Vocabulary development is a sign of cognitive growth. There’s not much to play with in our minds without words, stories, facts and fiction.

For each course, I introduce my students to no less than 20 books, bringing along my own dog-eared copies. I share my love of reading by referring to the classics in literature, philosophy, psychology and education. I believe lectures are richer if professors are students of humanities.

Years ago in my first class on Ecology of Human Development and Learning, I asked how the world of Aung San Suu Kyi had been before and after her house arrest. The name did not ring a bell.

I repeated the name. Only one student had heard of her. I gave hints—Myanmar, Nobel prize—to no avail.

Another time, at the height of the political upheaval in Egypt, to show how the Internet was key to Arab Spring and the unrest in the rest of the Middle East, I mentioned Mohamed Morsi.

The students looked blank and probably thought I said Morse code. I asked four classes that week—two master’s and two doctoral—“Who is Morsi?” No one in class knew.

OK, perhaps Morsi was too old to be noticed. How about young, handsome Edward Snowden? Nada. No one had heard of his name.

No one and nothing on the world stage seemed to deserve any attention. Not the day-to-day unfolding of history in Egypt, not the information technology guy who may be considered a modern day hero or villain.

So I gave a stern warning to the students to read up or better think twice before attending my class.

The irony is, as we advance in a digital technology that is supposed to enlarge our macrosystem and make it easy for us to know what is happening around the world in real time, the world of some people has gotten smaller, limited to the self-absorbed reading of their own and their so-called friends’ day-to-day trivialities on social media.

Reading for academic and cognitive purposes is on a slippery slope. For some, reading a great essay and writing clear sentences is a pain. For me checking such papers is even more painful.

Can we save our students from becoming semiliterate? How about making a reading list an essential part of the resume for teachers applying for a job? And reading 10 great books as part of graduation requirements?

For this semester break, students can plan for a reading vacation. Search lists of great books (thegreatestbooks.org) and choose five to read. Form reading clubs in your community. And, if you can afford it, attend a great books summer program (www.greatbookssummer.com).

(E-mail the author at [email protected].)