Right on schedule, a couple hours after my little drive-by on that piece in the Atlantic, here’s one of the sources that the article relied on, refuting a bunch of the claims it makes.

Carrie M. Santo-Thomas was referred to in this section of the article:

One public-high-school teacher in Illinois told me that she used to structure her classes around books but now focuses on skills, such as how to make good decisions. In a unit about leadership, students read parts of Homer’s Odyssey and supplement it with music, articles, and TED Talks.

Sounds dire, right? Santo-Thomas would beg to differ:

…despite the numerous examples I provided of students reading books cover-to-cover in my class, Horowitch opted to include only the unit that, like the original rhapsodes of the bronze age, I excerpt and abridge. Equally frustrating is that her article implies that I was forced into that decision in order to pacify floundering students or submit to the demands of standardized testing. 

Rather, my experience is that young readers are eminently capable of critically engaging in long form content, but they’re rightfully demanding a seat at the table where decisions about texts are being made. 

Read Santo-Thomas’ whole piece, it’s a pretty big indictment of a writer who has the answers before she started asking questions.

Reminder: The Atlantic is bad.

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