My children’s elementary school asked them to read at least 20 minutes a day. When they got older, the teachers recommended a bit longer - 30 minutes or so a day. This was for recreational reading (not homework) and, so far as I know, it is a fairly typical recommendation.

But Malcolm Gladwell’s popular book “Outliers” seems to lend credence to what I already feared: There is no way that most American students can become really proficient readers in 20 minutes a day. They need at least two hours a day, at least five days a week.

Sure, homework entails reading, meaning that many kids, between schoolwork and homework, read more than 20 minutes. But I wonder how much of that textbook reading is really sustained, deep reading. So many textbooks are broken up into small info boxes. Do they really get to read at a deep level for two hours a day? I doubt it. Plus, much of their “reading” time is spent filling out worksheets with questions about the text. Shouldn’t they read for two hours, then do written assignments separately? Does anyone have time for that?

Gladwell’s “Outliers” says that people who become highly successful in their field usually have practiced at least 10,000 hours.  So for a child to become a master at reading, wouldn’t she have to read an average of 2 hours a day, 5 days a week for 20 years? How many kids enter - or leave - college with that much reading?