The reading crisis is changing the conversation
During my years at TIME magazine, the newsroom had a rule of thumb: If something happens once, it’s news. Twice is a coincidence. Three times? That’s a trend.
August 06, 2026
News
The reading crisis is changing the conversation
The Fordham Institute • Robert Pondiscio
America’s reading crisis may be changing more than classroom methods; it is reopening questions about what children should know, which books they should encounter, and whether a common inheritance still matters. As confidence in skills-first, student-directed approaches weakens, the renewed emphasis on knowledge, canonical texts, and deliberate teaching points toward ideas long central to classical education.
Robert Pondiscio
The Fordham Institute
Related Resources
How Small Habits Fill a Life with Nadya Williams
What if the life you long for is formed one teaspoon at a time? In this episode of Composed, Christine Perrin speaks with classicist, writer, and homeschooling mother Nadya Williams about the small patterns that fill a life: reading aloud on the couch, gathering friends around books and snacks, welcoming children into imperfect homes, and writing in the margins of family life. Together they explore motherhood, Christian human dignity, education, AI, and the hope of building a humane culture through local, faithful, ordinary practices. For mothers who feel stretched thin and are hungry for wisdom, this conversation offers a gentle invitation to begin with one small good thing.
A Day in the Life of a Classical Homeschooling Family
After nearly 20 years of homeschooling, this mother is honest about both the work and the gift of educating her children at home.
_Z1ThKSD.png)
What Does Athens Have to Do with Abuja?
Classical Christian education in Africa is not a cultural import or a luxury reserved for the materially secure. It is a humane education that equips students to think, speak, serve, and flourish within their own communities.