There’s a quiet crisis happening in classrooms and homes across the country—many of our children are struggling to follow complex stories. And not b
There’s a quiet crisis happening in classrooms and homes across the country—many of our children are struggling to follow complex stories. And not because they don’t care, or aren’t trying hard enough.
They’ve simply never been taught how.
📚 One of the greatest losses? The ability to follow third-person omniscient narration—that classic storytelling style where the narrator knows everything, sees everything, and gives us windows into the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters.
You might remember it from childhood books like Little Women, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, or A Wrinkle in Time. These stories trusted us to hold many truths at once. To see through more than one lens. To pause and reflect. To grow.
But today?
According to The Hechinger Report, many children can’t even identify the main idea in a story—let alone follow the layered voices of a wise narrator who speaks beyond the page.
📉 What’s Going Wrong?
Children are reading less fiction with depth.
Schools often push fragmented “informational texts” over rich, narrative books.
Emotional complexity isn’t always taught—just tested.
Devices encourage scanning, not sitting with a story.
Critical comprehension skills like empathy and perspective-taking aren’t practiced enough.
🧭 What Can We Do?
At RosasChildren, we believe every child deserves to read stories that stretch their mind and expand their heart. But first, we must give them the tools.
✅ Read aloud together—especially books with complex narrators. Pause to ask, “Whose thoughts are these? How do we know?”
✅ Don’t rush comprehension. Focus on understanding, not just finishing.
✅ Teach emotional awareness and context clues. Omniscient narrators often speak between the lines.
✅ Push back on low expectations. Just because many kids are struggling doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. It means adults must do better—for all children.
🌱 This Isn’t Just About Literacy. It’s About Liberation.
This isn’t just a storytelling problem—it’s a literacy and emotional development issue. When children flounder in stories that require them to track multiple perspectives and internal feelings, it reveals a gap in their growth.
Historically, enslaved people were forbidden from learning to read. The first thing that terrorist regimes and dictators do in a region is stop the women and girls from getting education. From going to school. Why? Because literacy gives people the power to question, to resist, to imagine beyond what they’re told.
So when we ignore how many children are falling behind in reading comprehension—especially in poor and marginalized communities—we’re not just failing their education.
We’re failing their freedom.
Let’s turn the page. Let’s recommit to teaching our children not just how to read words, but how to understand voices—including their own.
🖤 Because when children understand the story, they start to understand their power.