What in the word?

Have we become a post-literate society? That’s the debate currently agitating historians, journalists, English teachers, and reading researchers. (Or, should I say, the debate that is raging once again, since…

On Tuesday June 23, I went to my regular polling site, an elementary school in Bethesda, MD, to vote in my locale’s primary elections. Beforehand, I tried to learn about…

The following is a guest blog post written by Dr. Anne Curzan. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we may take for granted the name…

Several people recently recommended I read an article from The Atlantic called, provocatively, “Reading Is a Vice” (Jan. 2, 2026). Author Adam Kirsch argues that if we want young Americans…

Shortly after Planet Word opened, I told our programming staff that we needed to begin thinking about how we would observe special, word-related occasions. Well, the biggest one of all…

I spent a couple weeks trying to draft one of my Messages from the Founder about students not reading whole texts in school (or out of school for that matter)…