Readicide

So I agree with what Gallagher says in this book. I think that kids are being taught that they don’t have to read because there are other ways of learning or more important things they could be doing. I have met so many people in my life that don’t necessarily hate reading but they don’t read in their spare time. Reading should be something fun. It can take you to new and exciting places. Media has skewed the perception of reading. Kids can watch TV and movies or play video games now. It is more fun and requires no work. My brother told me that watching TV stimulates less brain activity than sleeping. Watching TV has created bad habits for our students.

I also liked what he said about standardized testing. Multiple choice tests are making students and teachers just skim the top of learning. I hate standardized tests. They are not creating the society that we want. They make teachers teach to a test. Teachers are being fired if their kids don’t pass these tests. So teachers are trying to save their own asses rather than teach meaningful curriculum. So because teachers are teaching to the tests, they are not able to delve into the material that might be really beneficial and help students love to read. 

Students are not becoming better readers because they are not being held to a higher standard. They are scraping the top of meaningful text but avoiding reading and not becoming better at reading. I love to read. Almost all of my siblings love to read. My mom is the one that taught us to love reading. I don’t ever remember reading a book I liked for school. I am very behind in my knowledge of classic texts because my teachers never made us read. We would just watch the movies and call it good. As an English teacher, I want to teach my students to love to read.