Schools Should Require Students to Read Complete Books to Restore Educational Quality
Source: Rachelle Peterson. "Some Students Have Never Read A Book. This Bill Would Fix That." March 16, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that students can't read well because schools have stopped assigning complete books and instead use short excerpts. She wants a law requiring schools to assign at least four whole books per year because reading complete books teaches critical thinking skills that excerpts can't provide.
Conclusion
Public schools should be required to assign at least four complete books per year in English classes (grades 6-12) to restore proper education and develop critical thinking skills
Premises
- Reading proficiency has dramatically declined, with 70% of eighth graders unable to read at proficient levels and 33% unable to read at basic levels
- Students are arriving at elite colleges having never read a complete book, forcing professors to reduce reading requirements
- Schools have increasingly substituted short excerpts and anthology pieces for whole books, reducing average book assignments to only 2.7 books per year
- Reading complete books develops essential cognitive skills like making connections between ideas, evaluating arguments, and independent critical thinking that excerpts cannot provide
- Textbook publishers profit from expensive anthologies while complete books (many in public domain) cost less, creating perverse economic incentives
- Complete books connect students to cultural heritage and the 'best that has been thought and said' in ways that excerpted fragments cannot
Assumptions
- Reading complete books is fundamentally different from and superior to reading excerpts
- The decline in reading ability is primarily due to schools not assigning enough complete books
- Students are capable of reading complete books if required to do so
- Pre-1900 literature has particular educational value that modern texts lack
- Critical thinking skills developed through book reading transfer to citizenship and freedom