10/23/17 - On Gallagher's "Readicide"

In Kelly Gallagher’s “Readicide”, he writes about the many ways schools are inadvertently driving students away from reading. One of the most interesting points he makes is how write that schools are both increasing the number of standards they need to meet as well as taking traditional literature out of schools in favor of preparing for standardized tests. At first, I thought this couldn’t be the case. That is, until I read some of the standards sophomore history teachers were expected to hold their students to: understanding the underlying philosophies behind Western civilization, give detailed analyses of World War I and II as well as their aftermaths, and explain how most countries fit into the world’s economy.

Now, I will say that I could answer these questions in high school – although that is only because I avidly read through whatever history textbooks we got, so much so that I usually finished reading them sometime in the second month of the school year. I love learning about history; that’s the only reason I could answer the questions. To expect the entire student body to meet these standards, however, is absolutely ridiculous. Personally, I don’t think students could explain these things until they got into college, and most of the history classes I’ve had in college wouldn’t tackle these subjects until they got into the late 200 level.

Schools also have the inverse problem: while many traditionally-taught books are being removed from classrooms, those books which remain are taught to death. As Gallagher puts it, schools chop books up, add worksheets every few minutes during cooking, overcook all the flavor from the book, and serve in bite-sized chunks (never as a full meal, only as a snack). All this says to our students is that we don’t believe in them. We don’t trust them enough to get through a book all on their own and develop their own ideas and opinions on it; no, we must make sure they fully understand it and that no little tidbit is missed. Yes, the student now “knows” whatever book they are reading, but they despise it afterward. What modern America has developed is a sure-fire recipe for ensuring students can pass any test on whatever book we assign them, but ultimately are worse readers for it and lose out on any critical thinking skills they may have developed from reading and understanding the text themselves.