Pepperdine President Jim Gash Pens USA Today Op-ed on the Necessity of Reading

As headlines across the nation report concern over declining literacy rates, Jim Gash (JD ’93), Pepperdine president and CEO, has authored an op-ed in USA Today calling on educators to recognize the enduring importance of teaching the Great Books, which prepare students to be capable thinkers and to lead virtuous lives. 

“If literacy is indeed in decline—and with it, the critical thinking and moral formation that comes from reading well—we must not give up the fight,” Gash wrote. “This type of teaching requires educators to have the courage to meet the moment.” 

Titled “The end of literacy isn't here . . . yet,” Gash’s article opens by referencing a recently-published Atlantic article on a national decline in literacy and its central motif of the lost Library of Alexandria. Historians propose the library vanished due to decades of neglect, Gash explains, rather than a single catastrophic event. Gash then draws a parallel between Alexandria’s gradual loss of knowledge and concerns that modern society could meet a similar fate by neglecting its intellectual inheritance.

Referencing a Pepperdine faculty member who teaches a first-year core humanities course, Gash noted that while declining reading levels and shorter attention spans are sometimes evident among students, engagement with classical texts has a profound impact on their intellectual formation. In a technology-free course centered on Socratic discussion of classical texts, the faculty member told Gash that it is “amazing to see the light bulbs come on” as students discover that these works “resonate deeply with them as human beings.”

Gash argued that educators should resist cuting humanities programs in favor of fields perceived as more immediately practical. Reading of the Great Books, Gash stated, is in fact the foundation from which all other disciplines rest upon. He also emphasized that recent technology, namely the development of artificial intelligence, makes literacy and critical thinking, historically cultivated through reading and the liberal arts tradition, even more essential.

“We must not cut off the very branch on which we sit, which gives us the stability and common vocabulary to have such conversations—a longstanding tradition rooted in the great books and in our own ability to engage with them,” Gash wrote.

Referencing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Gash explained its box-office popularity bears testament to “the enduring power of great stories.” Within this movie adaptation, Odysseus laments a coming dark age following the sacking of Troy. “Yet he is confident that civilization will rise again,” Gash wrote, “in part because of the song the poets sing throughout the film.” 

“We must continue to form readers who will lead a largely post-literate society, should that come to pass,” Gash insisted. “We must continue to cultivate students of wisdom and virtue, sharpened by the discipline of reading and writing well.” 

Read Jim Gash’s complete op-ed on the necessity of reading on the USA Today website.