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.
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree that school has caused students to dread reading. I think the main cause of this is because there are assignments attatched to every reading selection that take away from the literature itself. We can't appreciate a classic novel if we are pressed for time finishing it and have to complete active reading guides. Having to fill out a packet and take notes while reading is frustrating and time consuming. I've enjoyed reading Shakespeare in school because we all read together and it is thoroughly explained by a teacher. I don't feel like I have to understand it alone or do too much work outside of class. Hopefully there is less busywork in college.
Amanda