Why is it that students who confess that they like to read do so apologetically, as if it were an embarrassing eccentricity, while students who don’t like to read proclaim it proudly, as if disclosing a laudable personal quality?
10 responses to “Love of Reading”
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Ahh, I know!! I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that proclamation. And then there’s the barely-an-effort student standing in the hall 2 minutes before lecture frantically scanning the first few pages. They just don’t understand why they need to read/don’t conceive of it as a “real” assignment (and they certainly don’t know how to do it critically). Nothing could tear me away from my reading when I was an undergrad (save the occasional libation 😉 )
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Yes. This is a bizarre values-inversion.
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Because the high-school culture in the US is deeply anti-intellectual.
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In North America in general.
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I doubt that high-school teachers promote the idea that books are evil. This must be something that comes from the families of the students. Thus, it is a self-perpetuating issue.
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You`re right. Anti-intellectualism in general. And you will never make money with your love of reading.
Every time a student confesses hir love of reading it always comes with a family story about how the student`s parents felt that their son/daughter was different.
It happened last week again, when a student admitted her love for reading while contemplating the piles of books in my office.
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“It happened last week again, when a student admitted her love for reading while contemplating the piles of books in my office.”
– That’s why I say that our most effective teaching tool is our personalities.
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That’s true. By high-school culture I meant the peer culture of kids.
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I could feel apologetic for not reading serious / intellectual enough literature for fun, but lighter novels.
Why would somebody choose to do a degree in lit, if they hate reading? I can understand such proud declarations from students of computers or physics, but from lit students? What are they studying and what were they thinking they would study?
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Have always wondered this myself! So sad. I proudly embrace my love of books and reading.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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