Vocabulary on decline due to fewer books

I found this article to be very interesting and true.  I found it shocking that primary education vocabulary programs are being "dumb" down because today's current youth can't comprehend or keep up.  Personally, I don't read as much as I should and I often dread having to reading assignments for classes.  However, I can see the importance of having a good vocabulary and speaking properly, especially in a professional setting.  Here in Hawaii, a large portion of the population speaks pidgin.  I was raised to use proper English despite having been born and raise here.  Some of my coworkers had the opposite upbringing, mixing pidgin terms with English and interchanging them subconsciously.  While it is important to embrace a culture, I think it is also important to exhibit judgement on when it is appropriate to use the national norm.