The bookworm is on the verge of becoming an endangered species in America. More than 60% of students in our nation's K-12 schools can't proficiently read at their grade levels, and pandemic-related remote learning and a teacher shortage in the past few years have exacerbated the decline. Literacy is in crisis, and the bookworm's only hope for survival is through fundamental improvements to the entire reading ecosystem.
How do we do this? It certainly won't be a one-and-done endeavor, but here's an optimistic beginning: Say we tried to transform the reading landscape from the south up, by introducing a pro-literacy prototype in Florida that could zigzag its way through the rest of the nation. This is big thinking, for sure, but that's the goal of the 2002-founded Lastinger Center for Learning at the University of Florida (UF).
