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Does school ruin books?

Reading is something that everyone should be brought up to both love and appreciate. It's sad how many high school students you can hear today that claim to hate reading. So many things can be learned through reading a book, but today a lot of people will pass up on a book to watch television instead. There has to be a reason for this decline in passion for reading, doesn't there? I believe this reason is school.

Adults claim that school teaches students to have appreciation for literature, but I think it does quite the opposite. School has taught me to hate reading. Along with millions of other students I have been forced to read an uncountable number of terrible books. Not only have I had to suffer through reading all of these books, but there were also the note taking, discussions, tests, and projects that had to be completed with it. Having to do all of this work has made me lose much appreciation in literature. One of the worst things that teachers do to you are giving you reading quizzes. I will be the first to say that there have been tons of books that I have thoroughly read and still scored poorly on the tests and quizzes. It is not fair that we get quizzed to check if we have done our reading, and even if we have we still score low. This has made my motivation to read even lower, again ruining reading for myself.

Another reason that school ruins reading is because students are forced into believing just what their teachers say. Teachers will express their views and opinions on books and they will say what they believe certain passages and concepts mean. Students are forced to agree with what their teachers say because this is the views that they will need in order to complete assignments and to school highly on tests. Many authors write books not wanting every single person reading it to think the same exact thing. Many things are written to leave the reader to decide what they believe should be taken from it, not what somebody else feels is right. Students are not able to fully express themselves and their views because they are always told that what the teacher says, goes. Reading is something that should be enjoyable, not forced down our throats.

Readers' Choice

With the explosion of the e-readers many schools have recently been trying to develop classes that allow their students to select their own books to read. I believe that these classes are very beneficial to students when created correctly. Letting students pick what they want to read gives them a wide range of freedom and enables them to read books that they are actually interested in. Every student has different taste in books that they like to read, so why should teachers pick the books for you? From experience many books that I have been assigned to read in school I did not like very much. When students read books that they show no interest in they tend to either skim through the book or not even read it at all. It is very difficult to read dozens and dozens of novels throughout your school career that you have no desire to read.

It seems as though having a class in which every single student reads a different book could cause for much chaos and confusion. After my semester of Readers' Choice I realized this class is able to function due to the certain assignments that we were given and the complete organization that was observed. This class was able to run pretty smoothly with little confusion. I believe that the guidelines we were given in order to pick a book were both effective and necessary to the making of this classes success. An element of this class that I liked the most was that after reading individual books the entire class would come together and discuss what we have read. This gives everyone the opportunity to learn about other authors and books and maybe find a book that they hope to read in the future either for class or on their free time.

Since I have been in the class Readers' Choice I have been able to read many books that I very much enjoyed. From reading books that I enjoyed I was also able to learn a lot. Many may say that students can read their books of choice on their own time, but the reality is that most students will not read in their free time. The element of choosing what you are reading, within broad guidelines, while also still being forced to read is very advantageous. From this class I have grown to enjoy reading a lot more than I ever have before and I was finally able to explore different types of novels.

Book Vs Nook

At first I was pretty skeptical when using an e-reader for the first time. I thought shortly after switching from books to a nook I would want to switch back, but that wasn't the case. Nooks are more convenient to use because you only need one of them and it holds as many books as you want. Also you don't have to go out to a store or library to get a book, instead they are all right at the touch of your finger. Some people argue that it is inconvenient to have to charge your book but the battery life is very good. Another pro of the e-reader is that you can see a sample of any book before you go and buy it to see if you think you will like it. Something that people like so much about real books is being able to actually flip the pages, but the element of swiping the page on the Nook is practically the same.

There are many elements on the Nook that a paper book does not have to offer. You can highlight any word and look up its definition. You may also highlight or add notes to important parts that you want to come back to. Being able to browse through thousands of books while sitting right on your couch is definitely a major convenience to anyone. Also, being able to lend books on your e-reader allows you to share books with other people, therefore saving them money. You can transfer books between any nook without even being with the person. These elements help to enhance your reading and learning in a way that a book has never been able to before. With all of this new technology I believe that paper books are a thing of the past.