Walter J. Ong

Why banning AI in the classroom will not be enough to remedy poor reading skills in a post-literary society

<p><a href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/pledges-action-europe-pisa-results-112512773.html">Policymakers are sounding the alarm about AI and social media in schools,</a> as PISA’s latest report confirmed that student performance in reading continues to decline. French Education minister Édouard Geffray lamented the “cognitive destruction” of a generation, while his Spanish counterpart, Milagros Tolón, recommended a focused effort to improve reading because “reading is the foundation of everything”. </p> <p>The Economist’s editorial board called it a <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/09/10/plunging-test-scores-are-a-slow-moving-catastrophe">“slow-moving catastrophe”</a>, emphasising that “while machines are getting brighter (… ) teens are getting dimmer”, and pinned blame on the weak, “radical” leftists in university education departments. Meanwhile, the “radical left” is taking meaningful action. On September 2, shortly before the publication of <a href="https://theconversa