...and far too many of my students are content just to read. While I am very happy to see the number of books my students are reading, I am disheartened at the level of books they consistently choose. It is always my hope that as students read more voraciously their appetite for challenging and thought provoking literature will increase. Indeed, I have seen this happen over and over again in past years. It does not, however, seem to be happening this school year.
In past years, the freedom of choice in self-selecting their reading has given students "permission" to try books that are outside their reading comfort zones, and they have risen to the challenge. I have seen students in past years, with great resolve and determination, maneuver through The Iliad and The Odyssey, Wuthering Heights, Bleak House, The Brothers Karamazov, The Three Musketeers, Jane Eyre, Don Quixote, and even Anna Karenina. They have tried out books of short stories, plays, and poetry, and tackled non-fiction books like The Federalist Papers. They have perused authors from Dante Alighieri to Alexis de Tocqueville, from Chaucer to Tolstoy, from Maya Angelou to Sylvia Plath - but not this year.
This year they seem perfectly content to devour series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Maze Runner, and The Hunger Games, and authors like Rick Riordan, Ally Condie, and Lauren Oliver. Not that there is anything wrong with these authors or their books! Actually, I have read all of these series, and books by all of these authors myself. I have purchased them for my classroom library. I have recommended them to reluctant readers. In the past however, these books and authors have been stepping stones to more challenging and difficult literature. They have given students the confidence they needed as readers to attempt something more complex. Reading poetry by Shel Silverstein and Edward Lear gave them the confidence to attempt Keats, Coleridge, and Langston Hughes.
Now, anything challenging is deemed "too hard" (insert whiny kid voice here), and the idea that a book may take longer than two days to complete or more than one reading to understand is unacceptable. If you can't comprehend the book you are reading while watching television, playing a video game, and listening to your IPod at the same time; well, the idea is simply unthinkable.
Hmmm, now I sound like my old English teacher, never thought that would happen. Next I'll be reminiscing about walking four miles barefoot through the snow to school. I refuse to believe that the great literature of the past, or the present for that matter, is unapproachable to students today. I believe Shakespeare, Bronte, Homer, and Dickens are still around for a reason. These authors, and others like them, still touch something deep in the human experience that will resonate as much with today's generation as it did with my generation, and the generations before mine. The challenge is convincing my students, and sometimes their parents, of this fact.
One of the most gratifying experiences in life is completing a challenging book and discovering you learned something about yourself, human nature, and the world we live in. Personally, some of the books that have influenced my life the most were the most challenging and difficult to read and understand, but it was well worth the effort. I am convinced my students will feel the same.
So, the struggle continues. It is far better to be a reader than just to read. I didn't come to this conclusion when I was thirteen and my kids won't either, but they will have a passionate advocate of reading urging them on, just as I did, just as all true readers did.
