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Abstract

Reading is dead. While its death has been widely reported in popular media, this Article contributes to the conversation by connecting the death of reading to core lawyering skills, arguing that the way we teach in law schools must change to account for the loss. Reading fuels critical thinking skills, communication skills, general knowledge, and our ability to understand and empathize with people. Thus, a lifetime of reading builds the foundation for core lawyering skills. But what happens when law students spend their lifetime doing anything but reading? This Article will first explain, briefly, how reading has been taught in American schools and how our brains do the work of reading. Next, the Article explores the state of reading in the United States to prove what many of us suspect: people now read less and less well than recent generations. Finally, the Article analyzes all that is lost when we stop reading and connects those deficits to core lawyering skills. It then proposes modest suggestions that may make equally modest inroads to address reading deficits in law students.

I. Introduction

II. The State of American Reading ... A. American Children Do Not Read Very Well ... B. American Children Do Not Read Very Much ... C. Newer Technology Enables Bad Habits

III. What Is Lost When Law Students Have Not Read? ... A. Reading Strengthens Reading Skills, Writing Skills, and General Knowledge ... 1. What Happens When We Read? ... 2. Reading Strengthens Reading and Writing ... 3. Reading Yields Greater General Knowledge ... 4. Other Media Do Not Yield the Same Benefits ... B. Reading Develops Analogical and Problem-Solving Skills ... 1. What Is Analogy and How Do We Use It? ... 2. Reading Builds Core Problem-Solving Skills ... C. Reading Develops Readers’ Empathy ... 1. Empathy as a Core Lawyering Skill ... 2. Reading Fuels Empathy

IV. What Can Law Schools Do to Address the Reading Gap?

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