Educators need to entice reading, and kicking the classics to the curb won't help.
By Simon Olech
Crisis Magazine
February 6, 2026
Our country has a short yet rich literary history, producing some of the most influential novels of the past few centuries. This includes classics such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Great Gatsby, books which have played major roles in various epochs of our nation's history and influenced people's understanding of the American Dream.
However, the countless efforts taken to "modernize" the American educational system and transform the way we approach learning have backfired, as students are now reaching new lows in reading proficiency and enjoyment.
Last year, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released its report card, finding that about one-third of all 12th grade students in the national study were below the NAEP Basic reading level. Education Secretary Linda McMahon expanded on the results in a post ( 1965370143657148681), revealing that 65 percent of high school students are "not proficient in reading."
But why is this happening? It's happening partly because we have rejected the great works of the past and created bland, baseless classes in an overstimulated world.
As a junior in college, I have been guided along the steps that have led to these disastrous results and personally witnessed the effects they have had on both my classmates and school curriculum.
We live in a time of constant technological advancement that has increasingly transformed the way we learn. Gone are the days in which we write and learn primarily on paper. Students now use computers to do almost all their schoolwork, providing us with quick access to information but also the ability to watch addictive content that takes our attention away from our education. It is now easier to watch live videos in class than to direct one's attention to the instructor.
However, some teachers are slowly changing that. Graeme Donaldson, an educator at Veritas Academy-a Christian classical school in Austin, Texas, and cohost of the podcast Classical Stuff You Should Know-has witnessed the transformation of academia and believes that an education devoted to the classics is best suited for the cultivation of wisdom and virtue.
Donaldson told me,
It's hard to quantify what has been lost culturally and socially from our dumbing down of reading curricula in schools...In our modern system we want measurable metrics and actionable items that are easy to assess, so we opt for shorter and shorter readings, and more "objective" and easy to grade assignments. Ultimately the real readers do so in spite of the system, not because of it.
He is completely right. Schools across the country have eased their reading requirements, assigning only a handful of chapters from a few books over an entire school year, many of which could be read within a week. If students do not understand the value of reading, they will shift their attention to other activities.
The rise of the internet and artificial intelligence has created many loopholes for students to outsource the minimal amount of labor it takes to complete a book. Many now rely on short descriptions and bullet points to grasp the meaning of complex and interpretive novels.
If schools want to revitalize and reignite students' passion for and interest in reading, they have to return to a model that prioritizes the greatest works of the past and expands on the eternal principles of our world, without the shortcuts.
Donaldson's solution to this problem is revitalizing the classics. "I've always believed that the classics endure because they contain something profoundly true in them-and all true things are eternal," he told me. "Consequently, they are important to read for this reason-especially in a world that is geared towards utility, measurability, manipulative techniques/life-hacks, and flat out nihilistic naked-power sophistry."
I regret the time I wasted in middle school doing basically anything to avoid reading assigned books. It was not until I started listening to influential authors and historians who enjoy literature because of its creativity that I became obsessed with it. Now, sitting down with a classic novel and a cup of coffee is one of my favorite leisure activities.
Both Donaldson and I believe that the best way to entice young students to read is to start young. "So much of the battle is either lost or won during years 10-15," he said:
A kid who loves deeply reading bad Star Wars novels at 11 is going to be a 20-year-old who has built some mental habits that are necessary for Cicero or Dostoyevsky...I would start by saying what we say on the podcast all the time-the best time to start is now.
This article was originally published on Crisis Magazine.