Last summer, Chicago hit on a way to get kids to read.
In June, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon accepted a friendly wager from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel: If kids in Chicago could read 2.4 million books during the summer, Fallon would bring his show to the Windy City.
Public challenges to encourage reading have become as commonplace as elected officials placing wagers on their hometown teams’ sporting events. But the first one I ever heard of was about 20 years ago, when a Chicago newspaper ran a story about an elementary school principal who had “lost” a bet with his students. Terry Murray had promised to spend a day on the roof of Haugan School in the city’s Albany Park neighborhood if the kids read 10,000 books during the school year. The story featured a photo of Murray sitting on the roof, reading a book.
Murray, 71, who is retired but teaches an education course at DePaul University, is quick to point out that he did not invent reading challenges. But he’s certain that the stunt was good for morale in an overcrowded school in a multiethnic neighborhood, where students were taught in seven languages. With weekly tallies posted on a bulletin board and parents required to verify that their children had read the books, the challenge engaged students, families, and teachers throughout the school year.
“I think all learning, whether reading or any other activity in life, is about motivation,” Murray says. “And success motivates.”
But kids are reading less these days. A white paper published in May by Common Sense Media reported that over the last 30 years, reading for entertainment has declined among all kids, especially adolescents. One-third of 13-year-olds and nearly half of 17-year-olds say they read for pleasure no more than once or twice a year. Although reading proficiency has steadily improved over the last 20 years, among fourth graders and eighth graders, only about 35 percent are considered proficient. Among black and Hispanic students in these grades, the proportion is about one in five.
The first reading challenge Murray issued was to his seventh-grade homeroom class when he taught social studies in the 1970s, he says. He brought in some of his paperback books and invited students to read on their own. He also invited those who read a book and liked it to eat lunch with him and tell him what they enjoyed about it.
“I knew if I didn’t screw up the discussions, I could get them to read,” he says. “The first discussion took place a week later, and most of the boys sat with us to hear about the book. The student who took a risk and read the first book seemed genuinely amazed that it held his interest. After that, the books began moving quickly. Within a month, we were meeting almost every lunch to discuss books. That year, the class average in reading went up almost three grade levels – among both boys and girls.”
Murray is aware of reports that some parents are opening their wallets to get their kids to open a book. “If bribery gets kids reading, that’s good, and it may help to some extent,” he says. “But successful readers are ultimately self-directed. I don’t recommend bribes – it’s too easy for parents, who need to invest themselves in their children through time and shared activities.”
Back in the baby boom era, when I grew up, parents were as likely to be concerned that their kids were doing too much reading as too little. My wife, the oldest of seven, recalls that her father tended to view reading as an attempt to avoid chores. My parents were resigned to my older brother being a “bookworm” (their word), though my mother constantly prodded him to “go outside and get some fresh air.”
I got plenty of fresh air as a kid and still found my way to the Hardy Boys, with an assist from the bookworm, who had moved into the sci-fi terrain of Tom Swift. Even though the car Frank and Joe drove – a “sleek yellow roadster” – was no longer roadworthy, and the words they used – “chums,” “sleuthing” – were as outdated then as “bookworm” is now, I raced through all their adventures. By sixth grade, I had moved on to The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, which Sister Thomasina forbade me to bring to school. Soon several copies of The Jungle were surreptitiously circulating among my classmates. (As readers of another popular book learn in the opening chapter, forbidden fruit can be a strong motivator.)
But why some kids turn up their noses at the sight of a book while others can’t resist burying theirs in one remains a mystery that the Hardy Boys probably couldn’t solve, even with the help of Nancy Drew.
Carol Marx, a news anchor on a morning radio show in Chicago, is the mother of two daughters, ages 10 and 12. She and her husband started reading to them when they were babies. Even though they used the same approach with both girls, one turned out to be a precocious reader and the other a reluctant one – until fourth grade, that is, when the reluctant reader got involved in Battle of the Books, a voluntary reading program in which students form teams and compete in reading comprehension contests.
“Competition transformed our reluctant reader into a precocious one,” Marx says.
To help explain reading differences among kids, Murray cites Howard Gardner, who in 1983 advanced the groundbreaking theory of multiple intelligences. The theory has led to wide acceptance among educators and psychologists that separate human capacities exist, from musical intelligence to spatial intelligence. Reading is closely linked to linguistic intelligence, and some kids may simply be wired differently. However, “reading skills, like baseball or anything else, improve with practice,” Murray notes.
So should the kids who took on Mayor Emanuel’s challenge over the summer – and succeeded, with 2.7 million books – have a leg up this school year, now that they’re in the habit of reading?
“You are more likely to read if you can read well,” says Seeta Pai, vice president of research for Common Sense Media. But socioeconomic factors also contribute to differences in reading skill and frequency, she says. “Kids from affluent backgrounds are more likely to have access to reading material, parents who read, the time and leisure to read, and high-quality education that supports the building of reading skills.”
Some people worry that children’s use of electronic devices may lessen their interest in reading, but these tools could possibly draw more kids in. “We don’t know whether other kinds of media and technology, including TV and video, are displacing reading,” Pai notes.
“Even with all the media available, nothing will entertain you as much as what you can find in a book,” Marx says. “I spend lots of time with social media, but more than anything I want kids to understand that they can pick up a book and go to another world.” — Paul Engleman