As an elementary school aged child, I was taught two things: if you read books you were smart, if you didn’t read books/didn’t like to read books, you were stupid. This wasn’t a direct lesson, it was more or less taught by people saying “books make you smart.” And since I thought I didn’t like to read, I must have been stupid. And, I later understood that the lessons they taught us were very harmful ones:
Instead of teaching us that reading something you love is important, teachers shamed me and permitted me from reading books below my “grade’s reading level.” But I fell in love with books below my reading level. When I was forced to stop reading them, I stopped reading.
Every spring would be reading season where you had to, I’m not kidding, read 25 books in a few months. I read mostly picture books for this but they didn’t count. I was punished for reading slow. Instead of being able to go on a field trip to a baseball game, me and one other kid were labeled “lazy” and had to sit in the same science lecture the whole day.
I could keep going on and on. There were reading comprehension tests we had to take where we read a short story and had to sit in the hallway with a teacher who asked us questions about it. But instead of asking us about the meaning of the story or deeper questions, we would be asked “how many apples did John pick?” and when I couldn’t remember these hyper specific things, I would break down crying and I was told my reading level was far below the rest of my class’s reading level.
No wonder people quit reading later in life. No wonder I talk to people about a great book I’ve read and they say “I don’t read, I’m not smart.”
It’s sad, it’s traumatic, it’s toxic. How do we fix this so kids never have to feel ashamed to read? How do we teach adults to love to read after this childhood trauma?
When I was in elementary school we had to read out of our reading book out loud to all the class. I remember training to read every day before going to bed. It somehow escalated to reading whenever I had the time and space. I compartmentalized reading for my own pleasure and reading for school. I really was encouraged to read by my mother who did the training sessions with me and my siblings, while she mostly could not find the time and state of mind to read herself in peace.
Strangely her encouragement ended when my reading started to involve literature she could not get the hang off. Like SF and Fantasy. Then it was mostly why do you waste time with this stuff? Don’t you regret spending time on this book which is so not relateable because it is pure fiction?
I regret nothing. I don’t read books to educate myself, I simply read them for pleasure. And even though they educate me. I learn things while reading and it is not a chore. The things you can learn about reproductive organs while reading trashy books is somehow never ending. I loved and still love comics. They are not a waste of time. They are marvelous. I was introduced to a lot of literature just by reading Mickey Mouse comics and never recognized it. No - they are not. Some might perceive them as immature and for just for children, but no.
This, I think, correlates with reading below your level. Because you are really not. Books are mostly written by adults. Some are catering to children but from the viewpoint of an adult mind. So most of them have layers like an onion, or a cake. And frosting. While the kids are mostly interested in the frosting, aka the outside of the cake they probably realize later that their cake has an internal life which is also delicious. While the adults choose books for kids for the aesthetic, the pictures and the message children possibly only see the pictures.
Personally I love it when children’s media, especially pre-teen and teen stuff is written from an adult. As long as they stay true to what they felt back then, I think it creates a lot of fascinating insight. As an adult looking back at the person you were, you can see the puzzle pieces which made you, good and bad and can comment on those.
Personally I love it when children’s media, especially pre-teen and teen stuff is written from an adult. As long as they stay true to what they felt back then, I think it creates a lot of fascinating insight. As an adult looking back at the person you were, you can see the puzzle pieces which made you, good and bad and can comment on those.