{"id":11055,"date":"2026-01-10T09:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T09:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11055"},"modified":"2026-01-10T09:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T09:05:22","slug":"gen-z-are-arriving-to-college-unable-to-even-read-a-sentence-professors-warn-it-could-lead-to-a-generation-of-anxious-and-lonely-graduates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11055","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z are arriving to college unable to even read a sentence\u2014professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

As Gen Z ditch books at record levels, students are arriving to classrooms unable to complete assigned reading on par with previous expectations. It\u2019s leaving colleges no choice but to lower their expectations. <\/p>\n

One shocked professor has described young adults showing up to class, unable to read a single sentence. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even an inability to critically think,\u201d Jessica Hooten Wilson, a professor of great books and humanities at Pepperdine University told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cIt’s an inability to read sentences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her observation reflects a broader trend: nearly half of all Americans did not read a single book in 2025, with the habit plunging some 40% over the last decade. And even with young people embracing BookTok, a TikTok subcommunity dedicated to books and literature, Gen Z\u2019s reading habits still lag behind all other generations. Americans aged 18 to 29 read on average just 5.8 books in 2025, according to YouGov.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I am tap dancing and having to read things aloud because there’s no way that anyone read it the night before,\u201d Wilson admitted. \u201cEven when you read it in class with them, there’s so much they can’t process about the very words that are on the page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students are struggling to read long passages<\/h2>\n

With students struggling, academics have been forced to adapt\u2014a move critics describe as \u201ccoddling.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her part, Wilson has turned to reading passages aloud together, discussing them line by line, or repeatedly returning to a single poem or text over the course of a semester\u2014in part so students can begin to develop the skills to read critically on their own and be prepared for their post-graduate career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to lower my standards. I just have to have different pedagogical approaches to accomplish the same goal,” Wilson said, adding that she’s taught at five institutions during her 22-year tenure, and more selective ones like Pepperdine tend to have better-prepared students.<\/p>\n

For Timothy O\u2019Malley, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, adapting to changes in student behavior hasn\u2019t been especially difficult. It\u2019s always his job to tailor classes to students needs, he argued. What\u2019s more, he said students showing up to class unprepared is nothing new.<\/p>\n

Early in his career, O\u2019Malley typically assigned 25 to 40 pages of reading per class \u2014and students would either do it or admit they struggled.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, if you assign that amount of reading, they often don’t know what to do,\u201d O’Malley said\u2014noting that many students instead just lean on AI summaries and miss the point of assigned reading.<\/p>\n

He traces part of the problem to earlier stages of education, where reading has been framed as a means to an end rather than a pleasure or habit. Years of standardized testing, he argued, have also trained students to scan for information rather than sit with complex texts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been formed in a kind of scanning approach to reading,\u201d he said\u2014useful for navigating news articles online, but far less effective for engaging with dense novels or philosophical works.<\/p>\n

Reading is on the decline\u2014and it could have wide-ranging impacts<\/h2>\n

One major issue among college students isn\u2019t hostility toward reading so much as a lack of confidence and stamina. <\/p>\n

When professors reduce anxiety around grades, students are often willing to give the reading list a go, according to Brad East, a theology professor at Abilene Christian University. <\/p>\n

In his course, he hasn\u2019t changed reading length or difficulty but rather adjusted assignments in light of generative AI to stimulate real critical thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn’t important to me to have stress-filled cumulative exams, nor do I particularly care about grade inflation,\u201d East told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cI want them to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confidence issue is something that Brooke Vuckovic, a professor at Northwestern\u2019s Kellogg School of Management, has seen among business school students. Each term, about 40-50% of her students describe themselves as novice or reluctant readers, but once they are encouraged to begin reading, she said, the shift can be immediate.<\/p>\n

And despite Gen Z\u2019s shift away from reading, the habit remains popular among the ultra-wealthy. A JPMorgan survey of more than 100 billionaires released last month found that reading ranks as the top habit that elite achievers have in common.<\/p>\n

The consequences of declining literacy extend far beyond grades, classroom performance, or even future careers. Reading, Wilson said, is a way of seeing ideas from other people\u2019s eyes\u2014leading to increased empathy and feeling of community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think losing that polarization, anxiety, loneliness, a lack of friendship, all of these things happen when you don’t have a society that reads together.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/p>\n

#Gen #arriving #college #unable #read #sentenceprofessors #warn #lead #generation #anxious #lonely #graduates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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