With their obscure vocabulary and complex sentence structure, the great old literary works, which often contain many answers to our present-day problems, have been almost completely forgotten. As literacy declines and social media rises, it is more important than ever that we not only read those old and difficult books to fight the decay of our language and intellect and be able to understand the past for ourselves, but also to prevent the cord of tradition from being severed completely. We cannot let the past become a foreign language.

Sources:

• The Atlantic article on cursive: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/gen-z-handwriting-teaching-cursive-history/671246/

The Atlantic, The End of Reading is Here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/

• The Atlantic, The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/

• Decline in vocabulary study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289618302198?via%3Dihub

• How many words most adults know: https://www.frontiersin.org/news/2016/08/16/most-adults-know-more-than-42000-words/