Subjects Matter Chapter 1 Response

After reading this first chapter, I feel like I have a better understanding for why today's students have very poor skills and little interest in reading. Unfortunately, testing and standards have hindered the student's curiosity and desire to gain knowledge through reading. Additionally, testing and standards have gotten in the way of the teacher's ability to share their passion for their subject area due to their lack of time for any extra, interesting texts. This issue resonates with me personally, as I used to be an avid reader as a child, but when I entered high school I quickly became too busy, stressed, and uninterested to read. Often, I was handed a textbook and told to read several pages—which I usually fell asleep in the middle of—but I was never presented with intriguing readings that sparked any interest in the subject. The only outside of class time I had for personal reading was usually bombarded with homework, studying, or assigned readings from my language arts class. 

Essentially, I became discouraged from reading anything at all. It wasn’t until college that I began really loving to read again, and getting excited about the texts I was assigned to read. My professors have such passion for their subject matter, and have the ability to share it with their students by giving them relevant readings. I’d really like to see more grade school teachers focus less on reading textbook chapters, and try to incorporate articles that would bridge the gap between school subjects and the student’s personal interests. However, a question or concern that this could raise would be: could distancing students from textbooks produce lower competency in the subject? Although the student’s interest in the subject may increase, there is a possibility that students will not properly learn key terms, etc.  

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Emily