Reading: Too Much Work, Or Just Too Much of a Chore?

By Ron Hogan on December 19, 2007 8:44 AM

Yesterday’s post calling for less negativity about trying to get people to read drew some interesting comments about why teenagers abandon much of the enthusiasm they had for books when they were younger. “I can tell you from experience, [kids] stop reading because once they hit middle school reading is no longer entertainment, it’s drudge work,” emails Melanie Lynne Hauser. “At the middle school my kids attended, they not only were required to read X amount of books for English (both required lists and “free choice” books), they had to have a book in hand, at all times, in all classes—if they were in math and finished their test early, they were required to then take a book out and read it, for example.” (Geez: I used to get in trouble for that in my junior high math class. Times change!)

“You shove it down kids’ throats like this—and I’ll allow that it’s probably well-intentioned, initially—and they just tune out,” Hauser continues. “Soon enough they equate books with school (and learning, and homework, and all the attendant negative images), and videogames, Internet, TV—anything they turn to as soon as the come home from school and ditch the backpacks—with entertainment. How on earth can we expect them to turn to reading as a form of relaxation and entertainment, when it’s literally shoved down their throats in the school system? Yes, both my kids had, on occasion, a favorable reaction to a required book in school. But more often it was a negative reaction, due to the poor, outdated choices the public school system makes. I’m not a big fan of the whole Gossip Girls generation of YA, but you have to admit that those books get young readers hooked on the concept of reading as entertainment—which is what they need to retain, as adults, if books are going to be relevant in the future.”

An anonymous GalleyCat reader echoes Hauser’s sentiments. “I was in Advanced Placement high school English classes. I was an English major at a respected school with a literary history,” this person writes. “And yet I was a senior in college before any teacher seriously inquired whether I had ‘enjoyed’ a book assigned during class. All those hours spent discussing books. And the subject of fun never came up. Our current method of teaching literature is so consumed with symbolism and structure and character development and other difficult topics that it’s no wonder kids don’t want to read at all.”

“I had a high school English teacher that browbeat us with analyizing The Lord of the Flies for five months. Every day for five months. When it was all said and done, everyone in the class wanted to vomit at the mention of the book. I’m not saying that serious explication shouldn’t be taught and doesn’t have it’s place. But if more professors at the high school and college level left their self-aggrandizing positions in the ivory tower, then kids might have some fun in English class. I’d suggest altering reading lists to include some popular works. Sure, make ‘em pour over The Stranger but also let them see the merits of The Broker. Teach students to recognize WHY they respond positively to J.K. Rowling in addition to teaching them to identify the symbolism in Hawthorne. When we approach our subjects in a self-important, impossibly dry, and serious manner, then children are going to respond accordingly. But if we insert some joy, fun, and amusement into the discussion, then they’ll see reading as a hip activity.”