Reading As an Act of Resistance (Notes on Harvard’s Hum 10)
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In our current age of smartphones and AI, have college students basically given up I'm trying to read full books or write on their own. Well, the answer depends on who you ask. So remember back in twenty twenty four, Rose Horowicz wrote a blockbuster article for the Atlantic that had an alarming title. It was called The Elite College Students Who can't Read.
Books. Now this article painted a pretty grim picture about collegiate literacy. Let me read you the introductory paragraph of that piece from 2024. Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities Columbia University's required great books course since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they're assigned, of course, but this feels different.
Dames' students now feel bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college, even at highly selective elite colleges prepared To read. Books. Alright, so that was a uh sort of a depressing article when it came out, but just last week
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