In her article The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books, Rose Horowitch argues that students at prestigious universities, like Columbia, are struggling to read entire books due to a decline in focus and rigor in high school curricula. She cites the experience of Nicholas Dames, a professor at Columbia, who observed that students are bewildered by the idea of finishing multiple books each semester. Horowitch suggests that schools and universities have had to adjust their syllabi to accommodate this issue. However, some faculty members disagree, asserting that students can still decode text but lack the attention or ambition to engage deeply with substantial reading. The article has sparked significant debate, with over 4.5 million views and widespread academic attention.
