The "Decline" of Reading in America, Poverty and Access to Books, and the use of Comics in Encouraging Reading

Stephen Krashen
Teachers College Record, February, 2005

This paper is written as a response to these questions, posed by the editors of TC Record: Many newspapers across the country have run the following statistics: The 2002 census shows that literary reading is down 10.2% from the 1982 census, which equates to the loss of 20 million potential readers. Even more striking is the numbers reported for young adults. In 1982, 60% of young adults engaged in literary reading, while in 2002, only 43% do. Is this cause for alarm? If it is, what can be done to remedy this situation? Some educators have suggested using movies and graphic novels as a bridge to literary reading. But, is this an effective bridge; does bridging guarantee that students will take an interest in reading? Further, some have suggested that by offering some students graphic novels, while offering other students novels, we are undermining the nature of public education. But, is this missing the point? Do new media like graphic novels and film serve as an effective education tool in themselves; do they even have to be used as a bridge in order to have an educational benefit?

Many newspapers across the country have run the following statistics: The 2002 census shows that literary reading is down 10.2% from the 1982 census, which equates to the loss of 20 million potential readers.  Even more striking is the numbers reported for young adults.  In 1982, 60% of young adults engaged in literary reading, while in 2002, only 43% do.  Is this cause for alarm?  If it is, what can be done to remedy this situation?  Some educators have suggested using movies and graphic novels as a bridge to literary reading.  But, is this an effective bridge; does bridging guarantee that students will take an interest in reading?  Further, some have suggested that by offering some students graphic novels, while offering other students novels, we are undermining the nature of public education.  But, is this missing the point?  Do new media like graphic novels and film serve as an effective education tool in themselves; do they even have to be used as a bridge in order to have an educational benefit?

Before addressing the issue of whether we should use movies and graphic novels to encourage reading, I first need to state that it is not at all clear that reading has declined in the US.  The "decline" in reading literature was reported by Reading at Risk, published by the National Endowment for the Arts (Bradshaw and Nichols, 2002a). Reading at Risk only counted novels (in book form), poetry, and plays as literature, excluding magazines, on-line reading, and graphic novels. Also, data from earlier surveys suggests that the "decline" may not be stable: In 1945, 41% said they read literature, substantially less than the 1982 and 1992 results, and nearly identical to the Reading at Risk results (Link and Hopf, 1946). In addition, NEA reported, in another publication, that intellectual life in the US remains vigorous. There has been no change since 1982 in the percentage of people who do creative writing, attend plays, art, museums, and operas, and who use public libraries (Bradshaw and Nichols, 2002b).

There are, nevertheless, substantial numbers of children who do not read well. For the most part, these are children of poverty; the obvious cause of their reading problems is a lack of access to books.

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