Newsletter – Let’s Get Building – March 27, 2026

Dr. Yanique Rolingson recently contributed a post for reading educators on a social media platform, and I agreed with her message. I’m sharing most of her post, below, so you might consider your own reading habits and those of the children in your life. Are you reading for long stretches of time at your house?

Reading stamina is quietly becoming one of the biggest challenges in classrooms today. Many students can read a short passage, answer a few questions, and move on. What is becoming harder is staying with a text long enough for thinking to deepen. Following an idea across pages, holding attention through complexity, and sitting with meaning without constant interruption now takes more effort for many students than it once did.

Part of that shift is connected to the kind of reading students do most often. Screens condition the mind for speed. Students swipe, scroll, tap, and move quickly from one thing to the next. That pattern makes it harder to slow down and stay anchored in one text. Books require something different. They require focus, patience, and the ability to remain present long enough for understanding to develop. When students spend more time consuming quick bits of information than engaging in sustained reading, their ability to concentrate on longer texts begins to weaken.

This is not an argument against technology. It is a reminder that deep reading still has to be protected. If students are never given consistent opportunities to read for extended periods of time, they will struggle to build the mental endurance strong comprehension requires. Reading is not only about decoding words on a page. It is also about training the mind to stay with ideas long enough to understand them.

At Book Bums, we’re working to move our students to the place where they can engage with a book for around 45 minutes. Does that seem extreme? When kids take nationally normed tests, they must have the stamina to endure for at least an hour to perform well. Some may argue that it’s not age appropriate. But how long can kids play video games without a break? How long is a typical Disney animated movie?

When kids are equipped to read well, reading for an hour or more in one stretch isn’t asking too much of them. It’s inviting them into something wonderful. But we must equip them to persist for longer stretches of time.

We had a time where tutors were doing the “I read a page. You read a page.” thing. I had to bring that to a stop. Our kids must learn to persist, on their own, for longer and longer stretches of time. You can promote this at home as well. Please don’t pull out the timers. Just read until the ends of chapters. Or finish the book in one sitting. We want—we need—our kids to learn to engage with texts for extended periods of time.

One tip I used in the classroom was to share with my scholars, “If you’re in a really great part of your book, and you just need to read a bit more before you can close the pages, ask, and I’ll invite you to finish up for a few minutes in the hallway. I’d love to honor that!” It wasn’t long until I had kids begging to please finish a chapter. And these were second graders. Building a culture that honors the need to keep reading—just a little longer— isn’t difficult to do. We simply have to make it a priority.