The education system teaches students to hate reading

[CmdrShep2154]

How would you solve this problem? Should students stopped being forced to read the "classics"? Should students be introduced to the sci fi and fantasy genres?

[Moralgy]

Get audio books instead of print books.

[Elegiac]

How would you solve this problem?

I've yet to see evidence that it's a problem in the first place.

[Tech Priest Bojangles]

I hated reading in school because they pick shit books. Very few we had to read I actually enjoyed. Turned me off from reading as a whole until some kid let me borrow a Magic: The Gathering novel and then I was hooked.
Let kids pick their own books, within reason of course.

[Fawkess]

I hated reading in school because they pick shit books. Very few we had to read I actually enjoyed.
Let kids pick their own books, within reason of course.

This^^^^^

Also most books in my schools library sucked ass

[Bocek]

How about instead of blaming someone else, you read with your kids at home where you can decide what they can read.

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This^^^^^

Also most books in my schools library sucked ass

Lol, nothing stopping you reading whatever the fuck you want at home.

[Cæli]

They should teach the kids/students to enjoy reading and being cultured, not forcing them and putting marks for it (happened for me). That's how you make some persons over a generation dislike reading. But the problem will resolve by itself eventually, we (teachers included) can only become more intelligent over time right ?

[Jonnusthegreat]

OP presents opinion as fact. Maybe he should have read more in school so he doesn't sound like an idiot...

[Robozerim]

I'm gonna have to agree with the sentiment some have already expressed. The OP is at best using personal anecdotal evidence and declaring it true for everyone and as such a systemic problem.

There may be some value in allowing for some choice in reading material for students, though. Where the limits are for this is naturally where the difficulty lies. Books chosen by the schools (in theory) are chosen because they represent appropriate thematic elements, display literary techniques that they're trying to teach you about, have relevance to history and/or current events, etc. A lot of books that children would choose would certainly be entertaining, but they may be rather devoid of the very material that they are trying to explore.

Also, if you have a class of 30 students reading 30 different books, it becomes much more difficult for the teachers to properly teach the class as they essentially need to do one on one lessons with every student and must read every book that the children have chosen (possibly multiple times) and outline a proper array of topics to discuss for each of those books. In theory this is probably a great thing, having so much one on one teaching that allows for the best understanding for each child, but in reality that is just far too much of a work load for one teacher to have. They could in theory take short cuts, but that undermines any and all improvements to the quality of the teaching and quite likely actually results in a lower quality than if everyone had all read the same book while still requiring far more work for that teacher.

[Stormdash]

Learned and literate students are less perfect cogs in the machine of the state. Working as intended.

[May90]

Actually, I've never understood why kids at schools are forced to read classics. Most of them forget everything they've read the day after the exam/test anyway. Very few read classics with live interest, most just want to get it done and get a good grade. Although this problem applies not only to the literature, but to pretty much everything in the modern education.

I think the whole education system should be tuned to develop kids' talents and help them get better at what they are interested in. Instead, we have a huge program that is forced upon everyone, allowing only slight variety of courses by the later years. By the time kids graduate and choose what to do with their life, they often do not care about anything and just want some easy job and stable income, and only the desire to live better materially pushes people to work hard on their career, not passion.

[Tackhisis]

The problem lies not in the choice of literature, it lies in illiteracy spreading in US schools. The modern methods to teach reading, such as 'whole word method' are ineffective. How can a child enjoy reading if he don't know half of the words and just guessing the meaning?

[Mormolyce]

English classes forced me to read books I hated when I was a kid, that I now go back and read and properly appreciate them. Some things you have to be an adult to get.

I think it's a difficult line to walk between having children read books that are appealing versus challenging them to expand their minds.

[Rhine101]

Funny. Go find some randoms. Tell them you hate reading. Then tell them you hate math.

You will get these responses. " eh, ok I guess" and " shit man me too!"


American education teaches students to hate math. Reading is the shit though.

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Also. The outsiders was fucking awesome.

[Sky High]

oh for some reason I thought you were going to bring some evidence. not just your opinion, that I can roll up into a ball and toss away.

[Xerra]

Grapes of Wrath, Romeo and Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird; I hated these books, cliffnotes was like the goto for the trash. But there were some I enjoyed such as Of Mice and Men and Fahrenheit 451 really captured my interest. But seriously Grapes of Wrath is like the longest piece of boring I was ever told to read in school. Also that book about the sign with eyes on it.. its famous but don't recall the name. It was terrible. High School has so much bad book requirements that I wouldn't blame people for dislike reading. However I do enjoy it, just personally I have read Shogun at least five times and Jurassic Park twice, Timeline twice.. books are amazing hands down if anyone hasn't read Villains by Necessity you are missing out on a literary masterpiece.

[Grummgug]

Reading in school was usually about reading comprehension to me. I remember many times I would finish a book or passage and I would be the only one to correctly comprehend what I was reading. My english skills were very, very strong. And then assertive people would come up to me and tell me I'm getting it wrong. Finally the teacher would grade me as the only one actually understanding what I am reading.

I find this play out in politics. I read things and liberals usually are ridiculously assertive in their beliefs but are just failing in reading comprehension at so many things. Liberals act very unread and very uncultured. Much moreso than the conservatives I meet. The topic of religion comes up and I talk about the atheist gulag slaughter in Russia and liberals act like they don't know the history and the culture, so how can I expect them to reach the correct reasoning? Or they talk global warming and I discuss the very scientific studies that show global warming won't occur and they just seem to refuse to look at the data. I explain and explain and explain and they just don't get it. No reading comprehension.

[unfilteredJW]

I had to read Wuthering Heights on 5 separate occasions in school.

I'm pretty sure that's cruel and unusual.

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Reading in school was usually about reading comprehension to me. I remember many times I would finish a book or passage and I would be the only one to correctly comprehend what I was reading. My english skills were very, very strong. And then assertive people would come up to me and tell me I'm getting it wrong. Finally the teacher would grade me as the only one actually understanding what I am reading.

I find this play out in politics. I read things and liberals usually are ridiculously assertive in their beliefs but are just failing in reading comprehension at so many things. Liberals act very unread and very uncultured. Much moreso than the conservatives I meet. The topic of religion comes up and I talk about the atheist gulag slaughter in Russia and liberals act like they don't know the history and the culture, so how can I expect them to reach the correct reasoning? Or they talk global warming and I discuss the very scientific studies that show global warming won't occur and they just seem to refuse to look at the data. I explain and explain and explain and they just don't get it. No reading comprehension.

It's amazing how you tie everything back to a liberal bash post. Top notch.

[Illuminance]

Not sure how I would solve the problem, but forced reading was the reason I promised myself that I would not take a single English class in college. Mission accomplished

[Blueobelisk]

Educational reading is about literature and themes, not the coolest technology and stories.