Last month, I wrote about the role that novels played in my life.  I was a precocious reader and I think that reading ahead of my grade level affected me both negatively and positively. Negatively in that it deprived me of some of the joys of reading fiction, but positively in that I read science and history.

At the end of my working life, I taught writing at three different schools: a community college, a four-year private college and a state university. I was surprised how unprepared many of the students were and not just at the community college where I began by teaching remedial writing. 

Some community college students probably read on a 3rd-5th grade level.  Some students at the four-year schools read at the 7th-8th grade level, along with about half of the adult population of this country.

For several years, I have tried to learn what it means to be an adult who still reads on, what for me, who attended Catholic schools, the level of a student about to graduate from the traditional elementary school. Does it mean their K-12 education was inadequate? Does a 7th-8th reading grade level indicate the average IQ of 100? If an 18-year-old still reads on the level of a 12-year-old, can that person’s understanding be improved?  

Let’s begin with the adequacy of their preparation. There are many things I liked about my own schooling. In the third grade, we began with the geography of our home state, Michigan. We were taught both physical geography and economic geography. If we were taught cultural geography, I do not remember. The following year, we covered each state through U.S. geography, while in the 5th grade, we tackled world geography. This prepared us for American history in grade 6 and world history in grade 7.

Geography is more than allowing little kids to color maps. Geography is mind opening. Sadly, most of my students never had a course in geography, let alone three.

Today’s college freshman is also history deprived. Ask them what was the Protestant Reformation? The Enlightenment? They have no idea. Explain both and then tell them without those long and torturous events, the U.S. would be a very different nation and they will blink at you.

Is reading level indicate tied to IQ?  Of course, the merits of an IQ test are debated and scoring well on some of those tests might be a matter of who one’s parents are and where one lives or even if they’re rested and feeling fine on test day. But, more to the point, what is an “average” IQ supposed to mean?

Which leads me to this question: Should a student who reads on the 8th grade level be admitted to college? To reject such students means closing the door on half of the young adult population because, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, that half “can’t read a book written on the 8th grade level.”  The Literacy Project backs this estimate up.

Considering the average reading level and the current pandemic threatening to destroy our public health system, it is no wonder that the American Medical Association, the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention have called for medical and health information to be written at the eighth-grade level.

I had planned to write this as a second chapter of July’s column. I began writing last week but spent time with my grandchildren and only returned to the task today, after having “pulled an all-nighter” watching the television series, “The Chair.” While the series has its weaknesses, it makes several points beyond the obvious sexism and racism. Chief among them is the ennui of the students depicted.

However, in order to depict the ennui of the students, the writers and directors depicted the professors as out of touch, both because they could not convey their own enthusiasm for their subjects and because of arrogance. Of course, that is both true and accurate. However, some of the blame rests on the students who just don’t care. Frankly, I saw that sort of narrow-minded disinterest is some of my peers when I was an undergrad.

I taught at three different colleges. I will honestly admit to having been disappointed in the curriculum I had to teach. However, when I looked at a fairly recent catalog of the English department at the university where I earned a master’s degree, I was disappointed in its scope. When a former colleague described her interview with the chairman of a once vaunted English department, I wanted to cry. The curriculum had shrunk.

But I was also alarmed when my community college students could not read the Declaration of Independence or when reading five of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary was considered too much by a would-be elementary school teacher in her 30s. When I asked my university students to perform what I considered something 8th grade honor students could do, that is give a short oral presentation on a single reading, I was met with sarcasm.

I do not know if reading beyond the 8th grade level was always a challenge.  However, I do send my columns through wordcounter.net to determine their reading levels.  This is on par with the 11th-12th grade level.

Susan Wozniak can be reached at columnists@gazettenet.com.