I am among those who treasure long summer days with my nose in a book, as I am anxious to catch up on the titles that have lingered far too long on my bedside table – to become immersed in a faraway land, to assume the life of another, and even to learn. As I am sure you have noticed, most of today’s teenagers do not share my obsession. Reading for pleasure among adolescents is on a steep decline according to research, and the impact has been scientifically shown to deflate vocabulary and writing skills and classroom performance across curricula.
I have been surrounded by children this summer, and most of them are decidedly not reading . . . anything. Not magazines, not books, not even their assigned reading. A few are listening to their assignments on audio. Most are “saving” their assigned reading until the final weeks before school, so the plot will be fresh for any in-class assessments.
Both my husband and I took years of piano lessons, and we credit our teachers, both of whom, perhaps reluctantly, allowed us to supplement or even replace classical music pieces with more modern tunes. Because they were open to broadening our repertoire, we both continued playing until this day.
For me, with literature, the path was not certain. I fell in love with books in the second grade when I discovered Henry Huggins, Ramona, Pippi Longstocking, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and Harriet the Spy. I read voraciously through grade school, at least until my teachers began assigning classic novels, such as Animal Farm, Romeo & Juliet, and Lord of the Flies. (I have since reread these classics and, now, have a deep appreciation for them, but I certainly did not when I was 13 or 14 or, frankly, at any time during high school.) Classic literature, in my opinion, often requires a very sophisticated palette, a deep understanding of place and time, and a strong vocabulary. “What comes first,” you may ask, “the sophisticated literature or the vocabulary and historical understanding?” Surely, some of you would argue that reading such monumental works builds strong vocabulary and appreciation for history, but this approach will only work if the students do, in fact, read and struggle with the texts. I did not, and your children are largely not doing so as well. Indeed, for years, I abandoned my love of reading, because I no longer found joy in reading page after page that seemed like mishmash to me.
I have noticed in the last few years that local English teachers are recognizing that some of these traditional titles are missing the mark with the new generation. I have recently seen modern titles on summer reading lists, which I fully support and cheer, such as Beartown and Never Let Me Go, but, yet, during the year, the classroom curriculum is filled with Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, and Ernest Hemingway. True, their works are worthy of dissertations, but perhaps not as the mainstay, the meat, upon which adolescents should gauge their reading appetite. Regrettably, our children are slow to trust a summer reading assignment, fearful that it will fall into the classic classic genre and be written in Old English – impossible either to understand or to appreciate, particularly at their age.
Encourage your English teachers to allow some choice in reading and to include some modern texts in their curriculum, and by “modern,” I don’t mean 1950; I mean post-2000! Discuss books with your children, and encourage them to allow their own personal interests to direct their reading. Perhaps most importantly, read yourselves. Your children will be much more interested in reading if reading is modeled on a very regular basis in your home.
And don’t worry; I am not a heathen. I recognize that the classics are classics for a reason, and that high school students should be exposed to several each year; however, teachers need to supplement these classics with modern literature and choice, so together we can build a new generation of readers. The best readers breed the best leaders, and, my, don’t we need both!