Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 17:13:02 -0500 (CDT)
From: <samlubell at verizon.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Young people reading less
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Well, outside of Harry Potter, young people are reading less.

A National Assessment of Educational Progress report came out today and in all the education news there was a nugget comparing how much people read.

In 1984, 31 percent of 17-year-olds said they read for fun almost every day.  In 2004 only 22 percent did.  Meanwhile the percent saying they never or hardly ever read for fun went from 9 percent to 19 percent.

For 13-year-olds, the percent reading for fun dropped from 35 percent to 30 percent, while those saying never or hardly ever went from 8 percent to 13 percent.

And, while cable television and computers and videogames were more common in 2004 than 20 years ago, they all existed back then.