Though it's too late (at night) for me to do much more than acknowledge this issue, I did want to mention the new study showing that Americans are reading less and that their test scores are in decline as a result.

Harry Potter, James Patterson and Oprah Winfrey’s book club aside, Americans — particularly young Americans — appear to be reading less for fun, and as that happens, their reading test scores are declining. At the same time, performance in other academic disciplines like math and science is dipping for students whose access to books is limited, and employers are rating workers deficient in basic writing skills.

It's not a surprise, of course. If I were a kid today, I'd be watching more movies, playing more video games, and so on than when I actually was a kid. How could one not? They are ubiquitous, and tempting. And of course the amount of time in kids' lives is finite. If you spend more time watching YouTube, it has to come at the expense of something.

The frustrating thing about the study is that it's limited. Yes, fine (well, not fine), test scores are declining, and to the extent that test scores reflect deeper things, that is alarming. But what else do kids lose when they read less that can not be so easily measured? How is their development affected without the lessons and instruction and challenge of reading stories? What cultural legacy do they not acquire?