Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
Have a think about your own family, friends and acquaintances. How many truly love to read? Very few in my own circle. My mother enjoyed reading very much. My father too enjoyed a good book but rarely got the free time. None of my siblings read. I have only two friends who are big readers. Two of my friends who are amongst the brightest and best educated people I know never read for pleasure.
Assuming my experience is fairly typical, we must face the fact that those who read for enjoyment are very much in a minority. OF those who don't read for enjoyment, there is, I think, a large group who who will never be readers. And also a large group who don't read because of their unpleasant experiences at school. I agree with Harry that a good teacher could make a lot of difference, But once again based on my own experience in my dim distant schooldays I don't think there are very many teachers who can inspire a love of reading.with the curricula which is served up. Shakespeare and Chaucer require effort to understand, not only because of the now archaic language but also the background and context. I'm not saying that Shakespeare should not be part of school curricula at all. Just that for far too many children he is as torturous as gym class to the poorly co-ordinated child. And making that Child read and dissect the classics is almost guaranteed to kill any possibility of that Child reading for enjoyment in the future.
I think curricula first and foremost should aim to foster a love of reading. I am not a teacher and would not want to be, but too many times I have seen a possible love of reading killed by soulless English curricula. Who knows, if we foster the love of reading we may well see many who come to and enjoy the classics later in life.
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I loved to read as a kid and was blessed with many adults in my life who fostered my reading bug. When I got to High School the way the English Classes were structured turned me off of reading into I was well into my second year of college when a professor who was as deep into world mythology as anybody can be reignited my passion for reading with of all things the Brothers Grimm and the like. I firmly believe as an English teacher that we must first and foremost show the kids we teach that reading can be enjoyable not just a chore. Unfortunately there is a core curriculum thanks to mandates by my state, I live in the USA, that take up most of the class time and leaves little time for anything. I have seen more then one student struggle with the likes of Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck as there personal experience and world view is so far removed from these authors that they cannot grasp what they are reading and just end up hating reading. This is not what I became a teacher for. I did it to instill the same passion and love I have for literature in the next generation of readers. Instead I am forced to teach in a way that is turning the majority off from reading. After my contract is up next year I am walking away from teaching as I do not want to be part of a system that is damaging kids instead of helping them become productive and happy adults as I feel the education process should be about.