“Considerably more than half, probably 75 per cent, of our young people do not read as they could. At least 35 per cent of them are very seriously [behind].”

Why?

“A national failure in reading instruction which we the authors see as the single major cause of the deterioration of our education system.”

When?

1961

Tomorrow’s Illiterates: The State of Reading Instruction Today, by Walcutt, Charles Child

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Note: H/T Ralph Pantozzi