Then in 8th grade it all changed. My 8th grade teacher made us do an oral book report every week. While we had to get her approval for the book, we were generally free to choose whatever books we wanted (Approval was basically denied only if she thought the book was either too simple, or was age inappropriate… though quite a few more adult novels slipped through because she was not familiar with them). After that, I became a reader… I still generally hated the assigned reading I got in High School, but whenver I got to choose what I read, I was a voracious reader.

Frankly, in my experience, people become readers despite what their schools give them to read, not because of it. Now, maybe current schools do better, however, I can think of no worse way to instill a love of reading than assigning reading that has little interest for the student and then forcing them to do additional work beyond the reading.

Mellville, Twain, Dickens, Shakespeare, Austen, etc. These authors fill the pages of HS reading and kids often find them boring because there is so little within the books that they can relate to. As adults, we can appreciate these works for the masterpieces that they are (Though I still think it is a horrid crime to be forced to read Shakespeare… Plays are not meant to be read through, they are meant to be peformed), but I am firmly in the camp that kids should left free to choose the books they want.

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Bill

My wife and I were lucky. We filled our house with books and our son didn’t have to leave home to have just about anything he wanted to read. And then along came Amazon and Alibris and almost unlimited choice.

My wife used Reader’s Workshop over twenty years ago and feels that you should let kids chose their books from a suggested list of books. She let them chose so they thought they had a choice, but actually were choosing from a list of “good” books that she knew children already liked to read.

Don Smith

I’d welcome similar thoughts from other readers, reflecting on their own family experiences.

Thanks,
David

As for meat-and-potatoes, I’m not sure what you mean. I was reading on a high-school level in 4th grade, so something must have been working. We did have short reading assignments (colored readers, to the best of my recollection), but when it came to *books*, I could read whatever I liked.

Oddly enough, my older brother and I were and are heavy readers. My two younger brothers never were.

As for Austen, here’s to a variety of tastes! No slam intended, and I’ve modified the copy to make that clear.

Thanks, and keep speaking up!

David

Maybe times have changed – I don’t remember being given much required reading until high school. We had to do regular book reports in elementary school, but we always got to pick what book we reported on.