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
Emily
