Houston, we have a problem

The proportion of American adolescents who in PISA tests have not even reached the level necessary to understand an invoice has clearly increased over the last decade.

And whoever says Houston, says half the world: Western students find it hard to understand what they read. Moreover, the proportion of "rushed readers" –students who skim through exam questions and give incorrect answers– has almost doubled in seven years across the countries. Does it surprise anyone, considering the speed at which we devour content on social media?

We are at the bottom line: experts attribute part of the general decline to the increase of screens in our lives, so that students are more easily distracted and read less for pleasure. Well, exactly the same as adults. Here, there is no one who can concentrate even while watching a football match, which fans are supposed to watch for pleasure.

That immense writer and educator that was Emili Teixidor admitted to me more than once that if he read a lot in his childhood, it was because the only thing that saved him from boredom were books. That if there had been television, that is where the books would have stayed.

In classrooms, there are surely more and better teachers needed, but to get students to make the effort required to sit in silence listening to explanations, or at home doing homework, or reading a book with the certainty that they will find enjoyment in it, the whole tribe must educate, starting with parents with their example and their individual monitoring. If we do not do it this way, we are heading towards a society incapable of reasoning and discussing, and easy to deceive.