JOANNE JACOBS: Why Joe College can’t read.

Students also lack reading stamina: They have trouble staying focused on a challenging text. In middle and high school, they read short passages to prepare for tests, but rarely whole novels, Kotsko writes. He links to Peter Greene’s lament that students’ knowledge of literature “is Cliff’s Notes deep, and they may never develop the mental muscles to work their way through a long, meaty piece of literature.”

Learning “to follow extended narratives and arguments” is a valuable life skill, Kotsko argues. Young people who can’t engage with complexity won’t be prepared for the world.

He lays blame on Common Core, teaching to the test, smartphone addiction and other factors. I’d add: The contempt for knowledge, which gives readers context, and the tendency to assign simplistic young-adult books.

“What’s happening with the current generation is not that they are simply choosing TikTok over Jane Austen,” he concludes. “They are being deprived of the ability to choose.”

Read the whole thing — which seems particularly apt this time.