teaching kids to hate reading
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 08:21PM 
“Mom, I hate reading. I did not want to tell you that, ’cause I know that it’s your job and reading is a big deal to you, but I really really hate it. I dream of the day when I will never have to do reading again. If I was on a desert island, I would rather die of starvation, than read a book. And, if you think I am weird or something, you gotta know, all my friends feel exactly the same way.” — Angela Maiers, Reading Without Meaning — Heartbreak at Home
Here’s the question. Is it just reading they’re learning to hate?
Lori
“Students may pass the tests, but they’re being robbed of perhaps the only opportunity they may ever have of building that wide knowledge base that is foundational if they are to develop into critical readers of the world.” — Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It
hat tip to Henry, who says his daughters love to read, but “none of their friends read for fun. Reading has come to be a chore.” — read his whole post here
Reader Comments (42)
Then I spend some time with kids that go to school or read a quote like this and realize that if the one good thing about the homeschooling environment I've created is that we eat, sleep, and breath reading, then my kids are worlds ahead, because if you can read, comprehend, analyze, and apply, then you can learn to do anything.
So sad.
How many things are lost through text messaging and facebook - misspelling is becoming accepted in schools, and grammer is all but lost.
Everyone in my family (my parents + my 3 siblings) read constantly. In the car, on the school bus, walking up the big dirt road hill from the school bus, tucked in bed during weekends devouring books, all lined up in a row reading comics (generally Tin Tin). Our houses are filled with books. We grew up with books.
I would be so sad if my children, and nephews + nieces, don't grow up with this same love.
The books I see my nephew read at school are tedious, and wouldn't encourage anyone to learn to read. You know the ones I mean. We normally swap the school ones out for something more fun, and the reading voice changes and the enthusiasm increases.
I do think that all parents need to read with their children at home. If your child goes to school, don't leave it all up to the teacher to do all the teaching. Parents are often scared to sit down and simply read and enjoy that with their children; they think it has to be a chore, which means that children think it has to be a chore.
Oh - I cannot imagine my life without reading and stories and writing and words and sentences and letters, and commas, and full stops, and exclamations marks!
(OT: sweet chairs!)
“because if you can read, comprehend, analyze, and apply, then you can learn to do anything.” — jessica, absolutely — it’s one of those “core skills”, right? it’s a superpower you can use to do anything you want.
my boys read for hours a day, too. the homeschool day is *long* and there is room for doing everything you want to do and still some room left over to think and dream and be bored and make new plans!
theresa, it’s more general than that — there are kids who just hate *learning*. just the word “learn” turns them off — they think it’s going to be boring and rigid and punitive. it says “we have expectations of you and you are going to do what we say.” rather than — here is the whole world — we want to show it to you and then do whatever we can to help you discover its treasures.
stacey — thank you for the book recommendation!
tbirdanni, i’m so sorry about what is happening in the UK — i can’t imagine my government telling me i am not capable of educating my own child. it seems the antithesis of freedom. i hope there is a huge uproar and things change in your benefit.
ellie, oh yes, i do know the ones they “do” at school. there is so little time for “free choice” reading at school — if any. and if you follow that second link up there in my update you’ll get a teacher’s perspective of how even good books are destroyed through the teaching process — pulled apart and turned into tasks.
i was appalled — absolutely shocked and appalled — when the sons of a friend told me that they “hated to read” several years ago. my own boys were 2 and and an infant. these older children told me they *hated* to read, hated books — i couldn’t even imagine such a thing. i couldn’t imagine how *anyone* (school, a teacher) could manage to present books in such a way as to make them anything less than wonderful. with time, i understood how it happened — but i’ve never understood why.
(and thanks re: the chairs — got to have good places to curl up and read! ;^)
One of my degrees is in English. Obviously I don't mind digging in deep to pull apart a book. But when I did it on my own, in college, it was very different than being led by the nose in high school to uncover the predetermined, "correct" answers. I don't know how I managed to keep the two separate--reading for pleasure versus reading for school--or even how I managed to get some pleasure out of school reading. (I was SO MAD when Miss Capalbo in junior year English gave away the ending of A Tale of Two Cities. How dare she go ahead of where we were in the reading and spoil it? Did she not realize that some of us were actually enjoying the damn book? It probably never occurred to her.) I go back and forth, much like Jessica, on whether my 7yo should be doing some writing along with the reading, if I should have a more structured reading curriculum. For now I'm just asking basic comprehension questions and leaving it at that. I'm so glad he reads for fun! (Right now he is reading to the 5yo while I nurse the baby to sleep.)
I was crushed for her (the mom...well, the child too, but that's an obvious one), and I was even sadder that I couldn't tactfully think of a way to tell her that she was causing the problem with her structure. She was pitting reading against something that is, for lack of a better word, easier. (Electronics are easy on a child's brain; kids don't have to think...and we all like easy.) The mom, though meaning well is also turning reading into a chore by making it the thing that "has" to be done. In that sort of scenario, there's no way her daughter is going to curl up with a book for a few hours.
I wish I could express that to her w/o sounding all "I know it all."
I have been pondering this little scenario for the last week or so, and I truly think that this is the heart of the reason that so many kids have not learned to love reading. It is no longer seen as a privilege or a way to visit far away (or imaginary) places or a way to relax or a way to learn. It is something that kids have to do - to pass the test, to get access to the Wii, to earn a coupon for ice cream at the library, and so on and so on. I don't think the rewards are always bad, yet when reading is only a means to an end our children are robbed of the opportunity to see reading as a reward in and of itself.
In the original post the authro described a lesson of sorts but the boy equates that lesson to reading in general. That is sad. What is more is that the original author whose job it is to "teach reading" doesn't seem to have much on her website that isn't about structural lessons that require reading but are about other things such as the structure of a sentence (grammar), the composition of a report.....now I didn't dig through the entire website so perhaps I missed where she talks about reading versus language arts lessons.
I admit I'm slightly confused but I think that is because I hold reading (the act) separate from lessons on language structure, writing composition and so forth. Even though we have a structured homeschool (vs relaxed/unschool) we try diligently to not force or push the skill of reading before it is ready to blossom on its own.
amy, i think it is five now. one of my best friends has taught K for the last several years and the majority of the kids learn to read.
i remember reading groups! they divided us by ability, so all the kids knew who were “good readers” and who were in the “slow” group. excruciating is right.
my third-grade teacher read chapter books aloud to us every day before lunch. i have intense memories of the classroom, my desk, the shadows the tree-filtered sunlight made on the walls, and all the children listening with rapt attention. i wonder how many teachers (especially in third grade — a testing year here) could get away with that today. like recess, i think the benefits *far* outweigh any “direct instruction time” lost.
jen, this “must read *first* and only *then* get your reward” mentality is the same thing amy and i were discussing re: reading programs in the comments of the previous post. we *create* a situation where we say, implicitly and explicitly, reading is something you *have* to do and somewhat of a *chore* but here, i will reward you for doing it. then we wonder why they see it as a chore…
i do have to disagree with you about electronics being “easy” — i actually hold kind of the opposite view. ;^) i think they are *so* attractive to children because they are *not* easy — they offer up a challenge and a lot of interaction. my husband (full disclosure — he is a software engineer! ;^) and i were just discussing this — how *hard* kids will work on a computer (or DS or video) game, how they will do a million tedious tasks to reach their goal, how they will discuss animatedly with each other different strategies for solving problems. their brains are fully engaged. (even if their bodies are motionless blobs ;^)
*books* can be hard — somewhere on the site i talk about a study that said college students today are *way* less willing to tackle a tough book, like shakespeare or dickens or even a science text for nonscientists. they aren’t willing to do the work; they don’t see the reward. yet my sons, a couple of years ago (when they were 10 and 7) started reading shakespeare together (believe me, entirely their idea). my 10yo told me it was hard, he didn’t understand everything, “but i’m going to stick with it.” to me, that comes from a deep understanding of what books give — a love of reading, but even more than that, a connection with reading. he really understands that this “hard” book has treasure inside that he will have to dig for. kids know this about video games — because they are games. they are fun. they are *play*. but we have taken books (in schools, maybe not all schools, and in some homes) and we have turned them into a chore, taken away the play aspect, taken away the choice and the freedom, and *that*, i think, is why kids aren’t willing to do the work. why should they? they don’t see the reward.
“It is no longer seen as a privilege or a way to visit far away (or imaginary) places or a way to relax or a way to learn.” beautiful — and reminds me of emily dickinson — “there is no frigate like a book … to take us lands away …”
bobbi, i see your point!
I actually do agree with you about electronics; I guess I meant easy in the sense of easy to get into, easy to learn, easy to enjoy, easy to keep going and going and going, even like you said, easy to consider fun. You used the word tedious to describe some video game tasks; that's exactly what I am saying.
While there are definately a few tedious books out there, so often books are complex with storylines interwoven, sometimes with difficult vocabulary and wild characters. Once you start a book, it can take a while to get to the exciting. You have to read and decipher, and for children it can be a multistep process of decoding then developing understanding...but isn't that exactly what you were saying when you were talking about your boys reading Shakespeare?
And finally, your recollections of third grade melted my heart. I had the same scene for much of my elementary school career; it was my favorite part of the day. I worked diligently to do it as a teacher; it was hard, but when I could manage that reading time, it was again my most very favoritest part of the day - because I enjoyed the reading and because I relished hearing my students beg for more!
And with that I'm back to preparing the house for a visit from the in-laws!
Thanks for the great discussion!
This makes me feel lucky to have a bunch of little readers.
It didn't used to be like this when they were at school though. Then, it was a chore. Home Ed has made them see the "reading light!"
Kids "doing" reading is heartbreaking...
I was just thinking about reading today becuase I was also thinking that we do so much reading but not much writing. My mind is now at rest with this!
Great discussion!