Reading trends among students have been all over the map since elementary school. At one point in time or another, books stopped being something students used to escape, and instead transformed into something they learned to avoid. Many students enjoy reading as a hobby, while others find it to be something they have no interest in participating in. However, students of all ages, genders, and interests have at one point or another needed to do some form of required reading for their school. Whether this be in class, at home, or even simply read out loud to them by a teacher, it has often resulted in negative feedback from the audience.
Most years, for English classes in high school, students are assigned a novel for class. Sometimes it’s a classic, other times it’s more modern. Nevertheless, whether it’s something you’re interested in or not, it’s not exactly a choice. Students are told what, when, and to what extent to read. Lots of the time, teachers will require these students to not only leave it at that, but also take the art of reading and decode it to the very last line. It feels like it doesn’t matter if the sentence is simply stating that someone went to the store to buy food for their cat- teachers would still want you to annotate why said person did that. Sometimes there is no why. Sometimes there is just writing, and writing can be done by whoever, whenever, so who are we as sixteen-year-olds to assume they are some genius who puts thought into every single word? When we do this, we are losing the story completely. It doesn’t matter how good the book was if all that is blinded by the fact that you have to write an essay on something you deem unnecessary. In fact, the whole thing is- well- unnecessary.
In a survey conducted by graduate students at St. John’s University, adolescents were asked about their reading habits and their thoughts on the last book they read for school. The research showed that students were uninterested in the required classroom texts. In fact, this dissatisfaction was directly linked to the decline in reading overall. There was a clear theme of the students reporting that they felt “forced” to read certain books, and the lack of being able to select the books themselves played a major role in this.
When reading starts to stray away from its original purpose of pleasure and starts becoming just another mandatory school assignment, it feels like more work than it really should be. Instead of memorizing the lessons behind the words, you’re memorizing the recurring themes for a test. Instead of connecting personally with the characters, you’re trying to focus on what part they will play in your essay regarding a topic you have no interest in writing about.
Not every book is going to directly connect with each student. When it comes to reading, it is normal that everyone has different tastes. In fact, that’s what makes reading enjoyable for those who read it for pleasure- they find a personal connection to it in a way they don’t have to explain to others. Research also shows that book preferences vary with gender, age, and other qualities, that make it hard for schools to entertain all parties. Schools don’t exactly aim to please everyone, which, given, would be quite difficult. But making their selection is a crucial step. If you don’t aim for a middle ground, students can get a bad impression of reading very quickly and lose interest in something they think is more limited than it actually is. In reality, reading is extremely widespread and can range from high to low. With the billions of books published today, anyone can surely find something that suits their taste. However, schools don’t make it easy when picking books that immediately give people a bad impression of the whole ordeal.
Requiring reading in a classroom doesn’t need to disappear completely. But widening the options for books will open many doors, or stop them from closing so quickly. When students choose their own books, it gives them a greater feeling of ownership over the situation and piques their interest overall. If schools are trying to promote good reading habits in their classroom, they should listen to what changes might help undergo doing so.
