This is the first in a series of pieces about the work I’ve been doing to address the decline in boys’ literacy.
A random bit of outreach from a teacher at Ferndown School in Dorset turned into a pilot program in the previous academic year. That program has been a success and we’re working on bringing it to more schools and institutions.
I’ve kept relatively quiet about this work until we had some clear and positive results. Another reason was because I thought I should write the one, comprehensive piece on the topic, the thinkpiece to end all others, but I’ve belatedly realised the perfect piece will never exist. There are plenty of pieces outlining this problem, perhaps you’ve read a couple of them before, but it’s easy to point out problems. It’s much harder to find solutions.
That’s what we’ve found. Clear, demonstrable solutions. They’re not perfect either but they have had some positive impact thus far. We have skin in the game and we’re learning each time we play.
This post outlines the broader problem of declining literacy. Not being able to read isn’t only a problem in education – it’s a failing that has deep and wide ramifications for society moving forward. For instance,
What’s more annoying than someone watching something on their phone out loud on a bus?
Glaring and blaring, the schizophrenic judder of their chosen feed whizzes past their eyes and around our ears, assailing the surroundings with digital and aural filler.
It is really annoying.
And it’s really selfish of these people to watch their phone out loud, especially when many videos are now subtitled, often automatically. Even if you’ve forgotten your headphones, doing this to the rest of us feels very unnecessary given you could just read them.
But have you stopped to ask yourself, can that person read?
Given that around one in six adults in the UK has literacy levels below those expected of an 11-year-old, maybe this person on the bus can’t read.
Isn’t that shocking?
It is shocking. But it shouldn’t be a surprise.
Each time I visit the school, I ask the boys, ‘Who’s been reading recently?’
One of the 13-14 year olds replied, telling me he’d been reading footballer Marcus Rashford’s book You Are A Champion. I was surprised as this book is aimed at 9-11 year olds and when I asked him, it turned out they’d all been reading the book together in tutor time. I asked,
‘Does everyone have their own copy?’
The response was shocking to me.
The teacher was reading it aloud to them.
Everyone suffers here. The pupils are patronised with a book below their supposed reading age and the teacher has to suffer through what must be an ordeal for some of them, in pursuit of some minimum reading standard.
By treating reading as a chore it’s little wonder that, according to the National Literacy Trust,
Only 1 in 3 (34.6%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2024—the lowest level recorded since the NLT began measuring in 2005.
Just 1 in 5 (20.5%) of children and young people aged 8 to 18 reported reading something daily in their free time, marking a 7.5-percentage-point drop since 2023.
Low literacy correlates with lower earnings and higher unemployment. Adults who struggle to read or write are often unable to secure stable, well-paid jobs in an increasingly knowledge-based economy. They also can’t read their TikToks quietly on buses.
Ludwig Wittgenstein said,
‘The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.’
Not being able to read means your world shrinks. Social mobility is affected by not being able to read. As we will explore later, perhaps social cohesion is affected too. As we’re seeing in the UK, not being able to participate in work is an increasingly big problem. The more people who can read and crucially, learn for themselves, the more people will be able to contribute to society as a worker and a taxpayer.
Reading shows very clear have and have nots.
Those who enjoy reading are 8 times more likely to read daily than those who do not enjoy reading. Enjoyment also correlates strongly with higher reading-skill scores.
Those with the enthusiasm read loads. Those who don’t fall behind in all kinds of ways. And the ones who fall behind are the boys.
The difference between girls’ and boys’ reading enjoyment nearly tripled from a 4.8-percentage-point gap in 2023 to 12.3 percentage points in 2024. This jump is mostly due to a steeper decline among boys.
Only 17.5% of boys read daily in their free time—by far the lowest figure for boys since tracking began.
Boys aged 14 to 16 are the least likely to read daily or report any enjoyment in reading. The drop is especially sharp once boys move from primary (8–11) into secondary (11+) years.
Lower engagement among boys correlates with lower reading skill, reduced attainment in English, and more limited long-term prospects for work or further education.
Not being able to read locks boys out of the modern economy. It makes them nonparticipants. It limits their choices and stifles their voices. Not being able to read cuts off your ability to express yourself, relate to other people and to pursue your own education, independent of anyone else.
This problem is not the fault of any one person or body. Developing curious, capable boys is to everyone’s benefit and a group responsibility. C.S. Lewis said,
The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.
The state of boys’ literacy has rarely been so parlous. This series of posts will explore how we can all work together to deliver some water to the desert.
Extra reading
The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society by James Marriott
National Literacy Trust 2024 Report Children and Young People’s Reading in 2024
The second piece in the series is now live below.
boys and books №2
This is the second piece of my short series about the boys’ literacy work I’ve been doing (subscribe so you don’t miss a post). Over the course of an academic year, I visited Ferndown Upper School multiple times to talk about books with different groups of boys aged 13-18.
I love this post because it also outlines that our response to the social woes we see can be developing a way to interact with the issue personally and locally so as to make an impact.
Similar to your experience, I recently found out that my son’s English teacher was reading their required reading to them. Not one kid had a copy of the book and these kids are 13 years old. I had the book they were reading and made him read it at home and take it to school. Between that and everything being online, kids are definitely not being exposed to books/reading nearly enough.