This post was inspired by on posted by Charles Yallowitz last Tuesday.
To read what he says, click here.
I always loved reading from a very early age, but not always the books we read at school. Sometimes I did. We read The History of Mr Polly by H.G.Wells for ‘O’ level (aged 16), and it was interesting and funny.
When I went on to higher education I chose English Literature as a subsidiary subject (I think it’s called minor in the US) because I enjoyed reading.
One book we studied I refused to answer any exam questions on it (we had a choice) because I felt that analysing it would ruin it for me. It’s this analysis of books we read where I think we go wrong. Everyone has an opinion about a book from whether it was enjoyable to what it means. (Same with poetry.) Many books people read and don’t see any extra meaning; yet in school we force them to find meaning, even if there may not be one. One of the comments said that in an interview with Pinter, he stated that An Inspector Calls has no meaning beyond the straightforward story. Yet children are taught to look for one.
As a writer, I read many posts and books on the craft of writing. One thing that constantly crops up is Theme. It seems as though we all have to have a message. Well, I’m with Pinter. Why can’t I just write a story without having to have a message and deeper meaning?
Poetry is the same, in fact, more so. Oddly, the posts of mine that get the most views are when I post a poem. Yet poetry books, we are told, don’t sell.
I also think that teaching is the reason people don’t review the books they read. Memories of doing book reviews at school (usually of the books they read independently) are not good. It’s work, and not easy work, either. I have quite a lot of ratings that do not turn into written reviews. I prefer to ask my readers to leave a comment rather than a review. I think this is less intimidating. So what if I receive some that are just one line. That’s better than none.
I read to my children. One has grown up reading, and loves a good book. The other never reads fiction. Hardly any books, in fact, preferring to get stuff from the net. My daughter read to her children, but they don’t read.
The way we teach our children should be improved. Not every child can be taught in the same way, yet in the UK at least, everyone seems to be taught in an academic way. This goes for all subjects. Some children respond to that well, but others are turned off.
And how many people remember much of what they were taught at school? Maybe they’d remember more if they were taught it in a less academic way.
We are told how important reading is, but turn so many of our children off it.
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Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 
Read this with great interet.
Reading a book should be fun and not prescriptive.
As a primary school teacher I would encourage children to try lots of different writings.
I sometimes worry when a year group uses a given test to formulate their learning – do all the children have to conform and love it.
We also went through a time in lowr years, when the class picture story book was broken down and disected.
I always read with my children. My son didn’t wat to read as much but as he was reading all the information on his football cards and football books, I knew he could read.
My daughter loved stories and would absorb herself.
She loved the ‘Where’s Wally’ picture book looking at all of the details withing each picture. She’s still an avid reader.
while my son reads for buisness and technical information.
With my grandson (aged 3 1/2, I read old book he might not have seen. I love his reactions and am facinated by what he likes and why. We certainly love reading.
We read some of Nanny’s books too. lol.
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Thanks for dropping by, Sue. Yes, we are all different in what we like to read, and that’s good.
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I actually trained as a primary teacher, but to this day find it hard to understand the different ways of learning to read and my three children were all very different with reading. All read to of course and I got the first and second child to read a baby book to the current baby before I read a story to them. My eldest I’m sure learnt by ‘look and say’ and in his future career his friends called him the sponge because he just absorbed everything. It’s not as easy as that for most children and of my youngest his teacher once said he had no interest in the mechanics of reading – well what seven year old does!
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When I was doing my teacher training, one lecturer said, ‘The time
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Sent too soon! Anyway, she said, “The time to teach children to read is when they are ready.”
Quite right, but if you have a class of seven year olds, some of whom have been ready since they were 4 and others who probably won’t be ready at 10, how do you teach them?
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I couldn’t agree more, Viv. I didn’t like reading as a kid, and I think it was because school made it so academic and weighty. What it schools just encouraged us to read and love stories? Great reflection. 🙂
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I loved analysing books and finding sometimes not so evident meanings in them, but I guess it depends on how it is done and it is a very subjective thing. These days it seems that people don’t understand what they read, so at a certain level we need to include that in teaching, but perhaps there are better ways of encouraging children to read.
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Thank you for dropping by, Olga. It’s good to get lots of different perspectives on topics.
Everyone has had something valuable to say. I love that you enjoy analysing the books you read. I bet you can find lots of hidden meanings.
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Oh, don’t get this former English faculty member started on why kids don’t read. I spent too much time helping college students unlearn the symbol safari/standardized test approach to literature that had been drilled into their heads in K-12. My goal as a teacher was to teach them that reading fiction and poetry was an experience–their own experience–first and foremost. If they learned how to experience a poem or a story with their five senses, their heart, and their gut, their minds would engage with it as a matter of course.
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Absolutely!
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Great post Viv. I’m with you, there is no one size all fit for teaching children, and because of that someone always gets left behind. ❤
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I don’t know what the answer is. As an ex-teacher, I appreciate the difficulty of trying to teach every pupil according to the way the individual learns.
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And that is a lot of work for a teacher too. 🙂
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Very good thoughts here, Viv. I try to review all the books I read (unless it’s so bad I can’t finish it). As we know, reviews especially help Indie authors. I have looked at other reviews after finishing a book that changes my perspective. I guess in a way we are analyzing a book when we read.
I like the idea of not having a theme. I like to use the term purpose – not that I’m trying to teach a lesson, but it’s for myself. “Why am I writing this?” “Where am I going with this tory?” I’d rather answer those questions than try to come up with a theme.
Great post!
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Reviews are important, I agree, Joan. Some people say they don’t post reviews unless it’s 4or5*. I post all reviews. I don’t think it’s fair to the author if all they get are 4 and 5 stars. They won’t know where they are making mistakes and so they won’t improve.
Of course, if I can’t finish a book, I don’t write a review.
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I’m the same way. I post all reviews. I agree that it isn’t fair to authors, and frankly I’m suspicious if a book has tons of reviews, but they’re all frou and five star reviews.
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That is definitely suspicious.
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I don’t think one size fits all as my mother always read to us and encouraged us to read and I was a voracious reader my two sisters however were not…interesting post and sad to hear what is allowed in the exam room now 😉
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We are all different. I read. Everything! From crisp packets to novels and everything in between. My husband gets irritated when we’re on a walk and I stop to read a notice about the place we’re walking through!
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Haha you sound like me but its good to know-right, Viv?
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Absolutely.
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Thanks for the pingback.
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Excellent post Viv and I agree with you that one size does not fit all when it comes to teaching children. I do remember that even in classes that were not really very interesting such as the sciences, the teacher made the difference.. Mr Honey for example our chemistry teacher when I was 12 created such cool experiments that I really began to enjoy the lessons and retain the knowledge. My first teacher Mrs Miller knew I could read courtesy of my two older sisters and passed along books that were meant for the older classes and made sure I maintained my love of reading. We did Mill on the Floss and Julius Caesar for o’level.. and after 54 years I still remember them so it must have sunk in.. but at home I was reading Wilbur Smith and my love of his books lasted a lifetime and I do think if more contemporary books were taught in school it would engender a much stronger love of reading.
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I can still quote passages of Shakespeare learned for O-level! And some poems I learned at primary school. I don’t suppose pupils learn stuff by heart any more as they can annotate the texts and take them into the exam with them! Definitely a no-no when I did O-level. We had to learn everything. Even to formulae in Maths and Physics, that they are now given! And they say that standards haven’t dropped.
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Well like most things today we have to take that statement with a bucket of salt!! I believe that the stats show far too many thousands of 16 year olds are functionally illiterate. xx
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Doesn’t surprise me! My daughter complained in the early 90s of having to teach a young man working in her group how to round numbers up and down.
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Yeah, I tried to mix contemporary works that were more accessible for the “regular” kids in my classes along with the required “classics.” In the US, we had both American and British Literature taught at all levels and then the 11th grade (16 year olds) focused on American and the 12th grade on British.
I always liked Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Alan Poe, Walt Whiteman, Dickinson, Mark Twain and John Steinbeck for American Lit both as a student and as a teacher.
My favorite was British Lit with, of course, the Bard (I still believe he wrote the bulk of his plays and sonnets no matter what the spoil-sports say!), Blake, Coleridge, Shelley. the Bronte Sisters (especially Charlotte because Jane Eyre is my favorite Brit Lit novel alongside American Twain’s Huck Finn!), Dickens, Hardy, most all the classic guys and gals… I was able to help some (sometimes most) students understand them and relate them to their own lives in spite of the differences in time and culture.
Not too crazy about modern authors except some of the quality popular authors and genres like mystery, science fiction and fantasy. I credit my own teachers for instilling the love of expression and universal ideas. Unfortunately, when it came to writing–most students struggled–a great deal! RJ Mirabal
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Sounds like you had a good mix there, RJ.
I’m not too keen on modern authors, either. I suppose I’m a genre reader. I enjoy fantasy, scifi, historical adventure and mystery. Can’t stand chicklit, and not keen on romance, evetif it is the most popular genre.
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You make some good points. Academic subjects need to be taught in a way that allows students to think of them as fun like extracurricular ones.
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The insistence of everyone being taught academic subjects, and in an academic way does not work for many pupils, but we insist on doing it that way.
In 1944, in the UK, the Education Act set up 3 kinds of secondary schools. Academic, called Grammar Schools, Skills based schools, called Technical Schools, and schools for the rest, called Secondary Moderns.
There were a lot of flaws in this system, not least the pupils in the Secondary Moderns being branded as failures. But at least it accepted that different people learn in different ways.
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Our career backgrounds are similar since I spent slightly over half my time teaching high school literature (along with writing/grammar, speech, drama, and a little music). I both agree with you about over analyzing books to the point of “beating a dead horse” (a Yankee way of saying, harping on finding far too much meaning in just a good basic story) and disagree that we shouldn’t discuss meaning and ask students to at least contemplate why they liked or disliked reading a certain piece of literature.
I always emphasized that literature is a way for us to experience life beyond our own limited time on Earth. We can’t all be brave warriors, obsessed criminals, mythical beings, etc. and we certainly can’t live lives that are beyond reasonable possibility such as in different historical or imaginary eras, etc.
Sometimes, though, the curriculum required us to teach implication, theme, finding over-arching meaning when just the joy of reading would have likely encouraged more students to become life-time readers. It’s hard to win that game, isn’t it?
Good topic of discussion! Thanks, Vivienne
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It certainly is hard to win. It’s about finding the right balance, I think. Not an easy task.
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