Read One, Reach One: The Movement

We are all aware of the literacy crisis in America. More than half of adults, roughly 54%, read below the equivalent of a 6th-grade level. The vast majority of kids in any rural or urban school district, sometimes as high as 60 or 70 percent in some of the most underserved communities, also struggle with literacy.

This is a crisis accelerating the destruction of our democracy. This is not just an isolated education issue; it is a foundational struggle for our collective freedom. Literacy doesn’t just impact our ability to comprehend texts. It impacts our ability to understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. If one cannot read the bills proposed by legislators or the policies enacted by governments, how will we ever challenge the harmful power structures in our country? Real power lies between the themes, ideas, and inferences in literature. In books, articles, papers, and research.

The War for Our Attention

The crisis is exacerbated by social media and artificial intelligence. We all mostly “doom scroll.” Research shows that viewers typically decide within the first two to three seconds of a video whether to keep watching, and studies consistently find a negative correlation between heavy social media use and sustained attention. The result is that, at best, we get surface-level details. At worst, we become victims of misinformation, or an absence of truth — leaving us senseless. Saving our democracy requires our focus and our ability to read and write every single day. Our humanity depends on it.

The Home Front: Bedtime Stories

The good news is that this is easily fixable if we work together. First, parents have to read to their children from the moment their babies can sit up. I know we are busy and overwhelmed, but bedtime stories must become routine in every home in America. As many parents don’t have access to books, let’s organize libraries, publishers, hospitals, schools, and community-based organizations to place a small library in every home in America. Message me for more information.

The Classroom: Full Books, Not Excerpts

Second, teachers must read books with their students in every school in America. Reading multiple books, discussing them, and writing freely must be routine. Not just excerpts, but full, complete books of varying lengths. Ask good questions and have students generate questions to strengthen comprehension. If there is no comprehension, reading is not taking place.

Our teachers must also be supported in teaching the building blocks of reading: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. It is completely unacceptable that accredited colleges are failing to prepare teachers to do this, and the lack of resources for professional development is equally unacceptable. Principals, superintendents, and commissioners must be “all in.” As I have been saying for years, the compliance, test-and-punish culture we have created hurts learning. We need a complete reimagining, redesign, and rebuilding of the whole system.

Reading is Liberation

Finally and most importantly, kids need to read books on their own. Adults too. Kids who read will always be “ahead” of the kids who don’t. But this is not about competition, it’s about liberation. Reading is knowledge, and knowledge is power. Power gives us absolute freedom.

We must strengthen our ability to think, reason, and solve problems. Reading improves our speaking, our earning potential, and our empathy. We need empathy and critical thinking to navigate this accelerated world of exploitation and surveillance. Our kids have to read. There is no way around it.

The Path Forward

Illiteracy leaves everyone vulnerable to violence, mental health challenges, and economic limitations. Research shows that children raised in households with low-literacy adults have a 72% chance of developing low literacy themselves. These are structural issues, yes, imposed on us by policy harm in various ways. But together we can break through by placing a book in the hands of everyone in America. Without literacy, we do not have a democracy. Without literacy, what happens to our humanity?

If reading rates decrease while AI use increases, we are ceding our cognitive power to machines. The wealth gap, caste, and all the things we are fighting against will only get worse. Where will that leave us 20 years from now?

The reading revolution must be now! No one can stop us. We must never allow our elected officials to say there is not enough money for literacy. If that is their answer, they should be voted out of office. It is on all of us. Parents, teachers, professionals, and readers working together.

Each one teach one. Read one, reach one.

Peace.