Johnny can't read — even in college. I lead a university and it's terrifying

A stunning study revealed that galore assemblage professors present find themselves teaching students who conflict to read, not conscionable to construe lit oregon constitute essays, but to recognize basal substance connected a page. According to Fortune, a increasing fig of Gen Z students participate assemblage incapable to "read effectively," forcing professors to interruption down adjacent elemental passages enactment by line.

That inclination should alarm each parent, leader and policymaker successful this country. It is not conscionable an world concern. It is simply a taste crisis.

At its core, acquisition is the cultivation of the mind. It is the quality to grapple with ideas, wrestle with complexity and pass meaningfully with others. Those are not optional extras. They are indispensable for occurrence successful the workplace, successful civilian nine and successful a escaped nation.

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As assemblage leaders, we cannot simply diagnose the problem. We indispensable besides instrumentality work for the relation higher acquisition has played successful lowering expectations, prioritizing comfortableness implicit competence and treating students arsenic consumers alternatively of aboriginal leaders. Universities person spent years chasing restitution scores and graduation rates portion softly sacrificing the intelligence foundations that marque existent enactment possible.

What happens erstwhile students don’t larn to work deeply? They suffer the quality to deliberation deeply.

Reading shapes much than world skills. It forms attraction spans, builds empathy, strengthens subject and stretches the imagination. These are the precise traits that marque enactment and assemblage possible. When students are conditioned to skim headlines, scroll societal media, oregon trust connected AI summaries, they suffer not conscionable literacy. They suffer the habits that prolong contented and maturity.

And employers spot the effects. According to surveys cited successful the aforesaid Fortune report, a important information of Gen Z graduates consciousness unprepared for the workforce. Many mention trouble with communication, deficiency of real-world vulnerability and anxiousness implicit nonrecreational expectations. The disconnect betwixt what universities connection and what the marketplace demands is widening.

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That should interest us. Not due to the fact that young radical are inherently incapable. Quite the opposite. They are smart, originative and afloat of potential. But imaginable without enactment leads to frustration. And that is wherever excessively galore students find themselves: anxious, underprepared and overpromised.

So wherever did higher acquisition spell wrong?

Part of the occupation lies successful culture. Nearly fractional of U.S. adults work nary books astatine each past year, and Gen Z reads less than immoderate anterior generation. But the occupation is besides institutional. In the sanction of flexibility oregon equity, galore universities person softly lowered standards, chopped speechmaking requirements and simplified program to debar pupil discomfort.

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This attack whitethorn consciousness compassionate. In reality, it is condescending.

Universities should beryllium starring the mode successful rebuilding a civilization of learning. That begins with restoring the dignity of hard reading, heavy reasoning and intelligence perseverance. These are not relics of a bygone era. They are prerequisites for leadership, work and growth.

At Southeastern, we signifier students to work deeply, deliberation critically and pb faithfully. They wrestle with ideas successful assemblage and prosecute information done some crushed and faith. That is not elitism. It is discipleship. It is mentation for leadership.

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We person built our exemplary connected the content that students emergence erstwhile we rise the bar, not erstwhile we little it. Our classrooms are grounded successful biblical wisdom, world excellence and a imaginativeness of acquisition that forms the full person: intellectually, spiritually, and vocationally.

This is the benignant of acquisition students are craving, whether they recognize it yet oregon not. And it is the benignant of enactment American higher acquisition urgently needs.

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We bash not person to judge a procreation that struggles to read. But we bash person to physique institutions that expect more, signifier much and hole students to lead. Not conscionable successful their careers, but successful their character.

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Because if we neglect to signifier students with the quality to read, we volition neglect to signifier the citizens who sphere freedom, the leaders who prosecute justness and the believers who transportation information into each country of culture.

The stakes are excessively precocious to enactment silent.