We keep blaming teachers for declining literacy. But we're raising a generation that consumes information through 15-second videos, endless scrolling, and constant notifications. Then we assess them as though they've spent years building the reading stamina to sit with a complex text for 30 or 60 minutes. Scrolling is a sprint. Reading is a marathon. Today's students interact with language differently than any generation before them. They skim. They swipe. They jump from one idea to the next. Yet our literacy assessments still require sustained attention, deep comprehension, inference, vocabulary, and the ability to remain engaged with complex texts. Those are essential skills. They always will be. But if children spend far less time reading books outside of school than previous generations, why are we surprised when reading stamina declines? This isn't about blaming parents or lowering expectations. It's about recognizing a profound cultural shift. Schools are increasingly being asked to develop skills that many children have fewer opportunities to practice beyond the classroom. Teachers matter. Instruction matters. But literacy has never begun with a standardized test. It begins with hearing stories, seeing adults read, turning pages, asking questions, imagining new worlds, and discovering that some things are worth staying with long after the first page. If we want stronger readers, we can't place the entire burden on teachers. Building literacy has always been, and will always be, a shared responsibility between schools, families, and the culture our children grow up in.

Leaders build ladders.