Read-i-cide: noun, the systematic killing of the love of reading, often
exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.
I have always enjoyed reading. I was a precocious kid, and a voracious reader. My sister would often get mad because I would ignore her requests to play pretend, content with my insular world of fantasy and YA Lit. I used to read upwards of 50 or 60 books a year, novels, novellas, comics- anything I could reasonably get my hands on. I was homeschooled until high school, and as I spent my days being forced to read at the much slower pace of my peers, I let my pleasure reading fall to the wayside. I became uninterested in the laborious task of keeping to a limit of so many pages per day, and that slipped over into the books I had once enjoyed. As my reading slacked off I replaced my time with other activities, and I didn't even notice. It's only recently that I've begun to get back into it as something pleasurable and not limited to reading for classes.
The first time I told someone I wanted to teach high schoolers their exact response was: "That's so difficult, teenagers are awful." Which, point. But. Is it not the mark of a person with good character to approach what is difficult with the openness and honesty it is due? Teaching without losing sight of our goals-- to make students into good citizens, to foster a love for reading that creates life long readers, to make our students interested in and exited about the world around them-- is the most difficult task we have set before us. That does not mean we should balk from it, or cover our ears with our hands and ignore the various nuances that come inherent in it. We need to change our stance, find what interest our readers, and deliver the material to them how they need it delivered.
"When I say thirty-seven teenagers, what I really mean is thirty-seven hormonal prehumans, who generally hate to read, who would rather talk about the game on Friday night, who have decided that since there is only a month to go before graduation that it’s time to gear down, and who have decided it is their mission on this planet to complain anytime I suggest they read anything academic.
Despite all this, teenagers, like all people, are willing to work hard when they recognize that their efforts will bring them something valuable. Thus, a mistake teachers make when approaching difficult text is that they don’t spend time teaching students the value that can come from serious reading." (Gallagher 76)
We must tailor our instruction so that students see the value in it, as it applies to their life. If we can find the sweet spot of instruction we can reach our goals with students, and create the type of people we need in the world. This is our duty as teachers. This is our highest goal.
