Teaching Them To Read

In this episode of Wake Up Look Up, Zach Weihrauch addresses a troubling trend: declining literacy among college students, even at prestigious institutions. Studies show that many students struggle to read entire books, a skill vital for critical thinking and self-reflection. Zach links this decline to a spiritual concern, noting that God communicates through the Bible, which requires reading and engagement. He challenges parents and church communities to prioritize reading, sharing his own strategy of incentivizing his children to read. Zach emphasizes that fostering a love for reading not only benefits academics but also deepens one's connection to God.

Creators & Guests

Host

Zach Weihrauch

Follower of Jesus who has graciously given me a wife to love, children to shepherd, and a church to pastor.

What is Wake Up, Look Up?

Check out new episodes of our daily podcast, Wake Up, Look Up, with Zach Weihrauch as he interprets what's happening in our world through the lens of the gospel.

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hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and today's episode we're talking about

teaching them to read this is prompted

by an article that was in the Atlantic

this week showing that college students

even at Elite schools schools like

Georgetown and Colombia are

increasingly unable to read books not

just unwilling or disinterested actually

not able to read them meaning they're

going to professors and saying I cannot

do the work because I cannot concentrate

long enough to actually read through a

book this is a major problem on college

campuses and again we're not talking

about your local Community College we're

talking about Elite schools where kids

have had to get high level grades and I

assume show an ability to do a highlevel

academic work but they still can't bring

themselves to read in fact a study done

in 1976 at the time showed that 40% of

teenagers

had read six books or more in a given

year only 11% had read zero books that

same study was done in

2022 and the numbers had completely

flipped meaning 40% of teenagers had

read zero books that year and only 11%

had read six or more it's a major

problem not just a problem by the way

for the teenagers themselves but it it

represents a shift in educ ation a

recent study that was done over 3003 to

eth grade teachers revealed that only

25% of teach I'm sorry 25% of teachers

total use zero books in their classroom

their their kids are reading no full

books and 177% of teachers are using

books to some degree but not the full

book it's an incredible stat teachers

aren't asking students to read students

aren't reading it's a problem with our

society it's not just a problem by the

way educationally like in a vacuum or in

theory Neuroscience tells us that

increased immersion in an actual book

increases critical thinking skills and

self-reflection two things that we are

increasingly in short supply of in our

culture but since this is a Christian

podcast let me make a crossover here the

primary way that God communicates with

his people is through a book it's

through the Bible Psalm 19 the writer

says that that the Bible to us is

sweeter than honey it's better than gold

because it is what God uses to transform

us into who he wants us to be these

teenagers growing up in our culture and

in our churches who aren't readers are

alienating themselves from the very

voice of God so what do we do well as a

church community and culture and as

parents we have got to get kids reading

we've got to get control of smartphone

usage video games and other things we've

got to incentivize getting our kids

reading recently my family took a road

trip and I actually printed out a list

of books had the books in the car and

paid $25 a book that every time one of

my kids read an entire book and then

could pass a quiz by it about it that I

gave them orally I actually paid them

for it that's because the benefit they

got from Reading great books especially

those books about Jesus is worth

the money get creative find ways to get

your kids reading by the way not only

will it be good for them spiritually and

good for them in terms of their brain

but it'll also set them apart from an

increasingly illiterate culture help

your kids succeed get them reading and

above all else get them listening to the

voice of God found in the Bible hey

thanks so much for watching this video

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