Wednesday, February 18, 2015

What it boils down to, is that I really hate rules.

It may surprise those of you who still respect my integrity (which is likely not many of you) to find out that I sparknotes’d my way through a lot of high school.


“But Grace! You love books! You read so quickly!”


Don’t worry, I’ve heard that one a lot. (Also don’t worry, I have also already apologized to most of my high school teachers for being such a nightmare.) I do love books, I am a voracious reader, and I do tend to consume them the way my little brother consumes pizza rolls - the entire jumbo bag at one time. (Except I don’t leave the empty bag in the freezer. Anymore.) Here’s the other thing though, more than I love reading, I hate being told what to read. (Corollary, I hate being told what to do in general.) It ruins the experience and I end up missing most of any historical or literary value because I am in such a rush to get it read in order to tell people I read it. Which entirely defeats the purpose of reading and creates a self fulfilling prophecy - I don’t want to read it because I’ve decided I won’t like it, I read it to appease someone else and it's a miserable experience and therefore I don’t like the book.


I can’t really think of a lot of people who will tell you they enjoyed all their required reading in high school, and I can think of a whole lot of people who have really hated reading for school because they don’t really enjoy reading outside of school.I blame required reading lists for a lot of that. I am all for reading in schools, at home, on the bus, in the park, at the doctor, with fox, in a box, to a hen, in a pen...everywhere. There is no wrong place to read - just the wrong books to be reading. When I taught, the one time during the day that I could count on my class to keep fidgeting and talking to a reasonable minimum without any kind of behavior reinforcement or reminder was story time. Ask them to read a one page story in the required reader? It was pretty much like I asked them to walk across broken glass barefoot.


As I recently mentioned I didn’t read To Kill A Mockingbird until late in college and I loved it when I finally got around to it. I didn’t read Jane Eyre, and had no plans to until someone I really respected put it in front of me and told me to read it. It took me a year to get through it, but I enjoyed it and now its one I go back to frequently. Huck Finn though? Pretty much turned me off Mark Twain. Jane Austen? Please ask me to walk across broken glass instead of reading that (loving the BBC miniseries is not the same as loving the books so just don’t go there with me.) East of Eden makes my top 10 book list, but Of Mice and Men? Just take me out to a nice spot in the woods and shoot me.

Ultimately what has distinguished the classics that I really do respect, admire, and love and the books that make me roll my eyes and pretend to throw up are whether I met them on my own terms on under someone elses'. So here’s my crazy idea, let’s stop telling kids what to read. Let’s stop telling them what is valuable in literature and what is not. Let’s give them books lists, and extra hours in the library. Let’s share with them podcasts, YouTubers, and author interviews. Let’s stop telling them what’s above and beyond their ability and support them as they can while they find that out for themselves Read short stories, poems, non-fiction, childrens books, no matter how old they are. Let’s find out what they want to read about, and value the new literature they bring us, and jump at the chance to talk about any book they’re reading - even if it is Twilight or Captain Underpants.
Boots also objects to reading lists. And rules. And work. Pretty much anything that does not revolve around him.

PS - I don't hate all books lists in general, they can be super useful but lets not confuse a curated list of books that have a similar theme, or thing in common with required school reading lists.

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