Five Ways To Make A Kid Hate Reading

Illiteracy is a huge problem in the United States.  According to a study released last year by the U.S. Department of Education, 32 million adults (that's 14 percent of the population) in our country cannot read.  21 percent of our adults read below a fifth grade level.  And 19 percent of high school graduates (That's GRADUATES, people.  These people actually hold a diploma, which is generally considered a symbol of the most basic of educations, but cannot read.

And the rates of illiteracy haven't improved in ten years, in spite of all of the standardized testing and incentives for teacher effectiveness and No Child Left Behind and now Common Core.

But even more frightening than the numbers of adults in our country that struggle to read is the numbers of people who can read but choose not to.

This is the real tragedy of our country's educational system.  In the words of Mark Twain, "The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."  With all of the modern innovations in teaching and the tight-fisted control the government has on what is taught and how it is taught and when it is taught...and the testing...don't even get me started on the testing, and in spite of the appalling numbers of people the system churns out each year with "below basic" reading levels, the real failure of the system is the number of people who want absolutely nothing to do with reading...the number of people who will never pick up another book after high school graduation.

"Alliteracy" is the label given to the growing epidemic of general disinterest in reading. Unlike illiteracy, alliteracy effects those who possess the ability to read, but are completely and utterly uninterested in doing so

But people aren't born with a disdain for the written word.  Most children are intrigued with books, maybe even fascinated.  But somewhere in the course of growing up these children were pushed away from the pleasure of reading.

How do you make a person hate reading? Here are a few proven ways to drain any joy out of the experience.

1.  Dull textbooks and programmed reading instruction.  Read the paragraph and answer the questions.  Rinse and repeat ad nauseum.  It's great practice for test-taking.  It supports the publishers' bottom lines.  And it makes the schools feel like they are serious about improving reading scores...and in turn creating job-ready graduates...which they aren't.  And it makes reading horribly dull.  It limits subject matter and doesn't inspire deeper or creative ways of thinking.

2. Standardized testing.  Feed a kid a steady diet of dull comprehension passages, just as practice for passing "the test"... because that's what's important, right?  Test scores?  In fact let's make sure we are "teaching to the test" at all times, leaving out anything that might randomly interest the student.  No superfluous learning.  No learning just because you are interested in it...or, heaven forbid, enjoy it.  That's not important.  Test scores are important!  The quality of human being the student becomes is irrelevant.  Just so long as they can pad the school's test scores, therefore proving the effectiveness of the "quality" education they are providing.

In fact, let's spend entire class periods devoted to teaching test-taking strategies. Students only need to know how to pass the test.  No real connections to the content of the text  need to be made.  No time for sharing ideas.  No time for reflection.  No time for applying new knowledge.  No time for reflection or absorption.  Just circle A, B, or C, and move along to the next meaningless task.  Once reading becomes a skill to be assessed and quantified and charted and analyzed, it loses it's personal and human qualities...and especially the magical nature that reading has when done just for sheer pleasure.  The system is far more concerned with whether kids can read, than with whether they actually do (Possibly because that is harder to assess and chart and analyze).

3. Assign reading assignments and quizzes and essays designed to bring out the points that YOU think the student should know.  Make sure they view literature through your values and life experience, instead of filtering it through their own thoughts and values and reality.  Make sure there is only one right answer to those questions and essays.  And make sure you never give the reader the opportunity to say what they really think about the book.

4.  Make reading a chore.  One great way is reading logs.  Make them write down how much time they spent reading along with a meaningless synopsis of what they read. Another great way to make reading a chore is vocabulary lists.  Fill their days with busy work involving words that have no meaning outside of their context.  It is a common practice to have a student stop what they are reading if they come across a word they do not understand.  Encourage them to open a dictionary to look it up (Maybe even copy it down and identify the part of speech and language origin and then write an original sentence using the word).  That's just stupid!  As an adult who loves reading and has a fairly impressive vocabulary (because of reading, I might add), I NEVER drop what I'm reading to look up a word...and I'm not sure I ever have outside of being forced to do so in the classroom.  It sucks!  It interrupts the flow of the plot and makes reading a burden and a trial. I developed (and am still developing) my vocabulary by reading.  A lot.   I meet the words over and over again in my reading until they become like friends.  And by meeting them again and again in context...they make sense.  No dictionary needed.

5. Make them read aloud in front of other people.  Nothing can make a child hate reading more than embarrassment, so make reading a constant source of possible failure and public humiliation.  Have kids read aloud in front of one another, even though the reading levels may be vastly different.  And go ahead and make the slow readers or the self-conscious readers or the introverts read publicly while the confident and advanced readers listen.  Go ahead.  Let those children fumble over words or drag on slowly while the other children giggle or lose interest or make faces.  Go ahead and make those tentative readers feel foolish and stupid and ashamed.

To quote Mark Twain again, "If a cat sits on a hot stove, that cat won't sit on a hot stove again.  That cat won't sit on a cold stove either.  That cat just don't like stoves."  Make reading a painful and disturbing experience for someone, and they are going to avoid it for the rest of their lives.

If I really let the conspiracy theorist in me run wild, I would suggest that the system doesn't even want to create readers.  In fact, that inner conspiracy theorist might even postulate that the system wants to DISCOURAGE reading.  Perhaps because avid readers are exposed to a boundless source of differing thoughts and opinions, and they are more empathetic and better critical thinkers.  They ponder and question and dig deeper.  What could be a bigger threat to "the system" than people who actually think...not just regurgitate the thought patterns the system prescribes?

While I stand by the belief that the vast majority of teachers are wonderful people and that they pursued careers in education for all kinds of noble and honorable reasons, the truth is that they are just cogs in a very broken system.  Our system of education has turned into a barrage of stress and test results...a place where real learning (the valuable life-lessons kind of useful and powerful learning) is devalued.

So what is the answer?  It's probably not an easy one, but we could start with just letting them read...whatever they want.  Without a thought to how it affects test scores or graduation rates or anything else that can be measured.

Because the real value of things can't be charted and analyzed and evaluated.  It's that way in life and it's that way in learning, too.

Because...well...life is learning...

On Being Offended

Seems like I'm getting pretty good at offending people.  Not that I've been practicing or anything.  I'm not even sure how I would practice something like that....or why it would be something to strive to be good at. And believe me, I am NOT trying.  In fact, I tend to be kind of a people-pleaser (not a confession I'm particularly happy to make) and very much a peace-keeper (I'm blaming my mother on that one.  Although, in many situations, it's totally not a bad thing.)  So it's been kind of stressing for me to find so many people offended by something I've said (or not said) or done (or not done) or written (or not written...seriously, I'm not sure there's any winning here).

And then I find myself being offended that they are offended.  Real mature, right?

But I'm not walking around trying to offend people.  Who does that?  Other than uber conservative talk show hosts and opinionated grandmas?  I try on most days to practice some level of empathy, although I often fail miserably (especially before coffee).   But even on my best days (which are usually my most caffeinated days) someone is liable to get their panties knotted even if I just walked in the room.  (I blame it on just not paying attention...and apparently having a natural perpetually grumpy look.)

Being offended by someone kinda feels good (I know this because I come from a long line of easily offended ancestors...and a family that can pass a grudge down through generations).  Not in a warm and fuzzy kind of way (and certainly not the way eating chocolate and reading a good book while wearing warm fuzzy socks makes me feel good), but in a rather crude, "I-feel-morally-superior" kind of way.   Still not very mature.

But we are all human beings and we are all (hopefully) trying to evolve, to be better people than we were yesterday, and self-awareness is a giant leap in that process.  The biggest problem with being offended is that it is a completely narcissistic injury.  It's all about me.  Why I'm hurt.  How I'm being treated.  How I feel. It's a big bruise to our egos, which means we are living completely inside of ourselves and expecting certain responses from others because we deserve it damn it! Not very fair to the people on whom we place our expectations (and they probably aren't even aware of our expectations.  We don't usually tell them....especially if we are women), plus it's a pretty vain and arrogant way to approach life (But I really, really, REALLY want it to be all about ME!)

As much as it might crassly feel good to be offended (and therefore a morally superior victim), it is counter-productive to any sort of personal growth or resolution to the unpleasant situation that caused the offense in the first place.  Being offended, and all of the resentment that quickly builds up like a massive brick wall, clouds our perceptions and obscures the objectivity needed to settle a disagreement or mend a hurt (especially when the hurt is our own).  It shuts down other mental processes and constrains us in undesirable ways.  It's like being stuck in a box of our own making....and we don't just need to think outside of this box, we need to get rid of the box altogether.

I'm not trying to say that offending people on purpose is acceptable.  People rarely set out to purposely piss someone off...if they do they are just being jerks (and that's putting it nicely).  In fact, most of us are so self-absorbed that we don't even realize that we've offended someone.  It's kind of how most humans work.  We shuffle through life with blinders on, focusing on our own problems and the drudgery of our own struggles.  If I've offended you, I was probably thinking about the mounding piles of laundry or my unpaid medical bills or the customer who yelled at me at work, and not about what I was (or wasn't) doing in the moment I offended you.  We all need to be careful not to personalize situations that in all probability have absolutely nothing to do with us.  We see circumstances constantly from our own perspectives.  Even when we attempt to put ourselves in the other person's shoes (that's called empathy, people, and it's really a good idea), our perceptions are still blurred by our own reality.  So even when we attempted to step into those shoes, we still carry the dust from our own highways.

But wait!  I still want to feel morally superior!  (Remember that long line of grudge holders?  Childhood programming dies hard.)

Being offended (or being offended that someone is offended) supplies no fair proof of right or wrong, so the sense of moral superiority is just a mirage.  The feeling of being slighted is nothing more than a barometer of our own emotional control.  We are definitely the victims when we find ourselves offended.  But we are being victimized not by the offending individual, but by ourselves.  It may feel like the offense originates from the other person, but ultimately we are the ones who allow ourselves to feel offended.  The very wise Eleanor Roosevelt had it right when she said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."   Boil it down to slow gravy and we can choose to be offended...or not.

So I'm seeking to create a more balanced and stable sense of self.  I want to be less affected by my own negative thoughts and more content within myself.  If it doesn't matter what other people think of me, being offended isn't an option.  Other people's opinions of me just won't matter.  I do not need their affirmations to validate who I already know that I am.

And if I find myself teetering precariously on the verge of being offended...well, I should probably go ahead and give the other person the benefit of the doubt.  Because they probably didn't mean it (unless they were just being a dick, then they aren't worth the energy it takes to be offended anyway).  And I have way better things to do with my time...like being the totally awesome person that I know I am.