We are back again, discussing general
studies in our schools, but before we start, a little background information: I
am a fairly new teacher at Bais Yaakov, and my father has been teaching in
yeshivos for more than 20 years. Sometimes, I come home at the end of my day
and talk shop with my father, and, as it turns out, many of the questions and
issues he has dealt with (and continues to deal with) are the very same ones I
come home with.
Meira: I find
that my students read much less than my friends and I did when we were their
age.
Aharon: Not only
that, but I think that we, as teachers, assign less reading than we did even 10
years ago. Certainly, in yeshivas, there is a move away from even teaching
novels in high school as the boys have a tendency not to do assigned reading
outside of class.
Meira: Given
the choice between a good book and a screen (whether it is a smart phone,
computer, tablet, or game system), kids increasingly opt for the mind-numbing
bliss and instant gratification of their electronic devices.
Aharon: This
trend away from reading has been the subject of numerous studies in the past
two decades. In the preface to the study To
Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence, Dana Gioia, former
Chairman of National Endowment for the Arts, writes: “The story the data tells
is simple, consistent, and alarming…. There is a general decline in reading
among teenage and adult Americans. Most alarming, both reading ability and the
habit of regular reading have greatly declined among college graduates. These
negative trends have more than literary importance. As this report makes clear,
the declines have demonstrable social, economic, cultural, and civic
implications.”
Meira: As that
study indicates, reading has been linked to far more than just academic
success. Various studies have linked reading for pleasure with increased
imagination, emotional competency, and empathy and understanding, among many
others. The reverse has also been studied. Low levels of literacy have been
associated with all types of negative academic, social, and personal behaviors.
Aharon: Even
more, reading for pleasure can have significant health benefits. A study from the
University of Sussex and Mindlab International demonstrated that reading is
300% more effective at reducing tension and stress than going for a walk and
700% better than playing video games.
Meira: In a
certain sense, though, by the time kids get to school, the battle is already
lost or won. Or even worse, perhaps, as teachers, we make reading synonymous
with homework and assignments – generally not items at the top of students’
wish lists – destroying the love a child once had for reading.
Aharon: Absolutely.
I am reminded of the observation of Emilie Buchwald that “children are made
readers on the laps of their parents.” I grew up in a home of books.
Invariably, my father, a”h, had two
teetering stacks of books on either side of his desk. One stack was to be read,
and the other was already read. Despite the constant movement from one stack to
the other, neither pile diminished in size.
Nassim Taleb, in
his book The Black Swan, describes
the library of one of my favorite authors, Umberto Eco, and the reaction of
visitors to his house on seeing it: “The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that
small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is
the owner of a large personal library (containing 30,000 books) and separates
visitors into two categories: those who react with, “Wow! Signore professore
dottore Eco, what a library you have. How many of these books have you read?”
and the others – a very small minority – who get the point that a private
library is not an ego-boosting appendage.
“Read books are
far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what
you do not know as your financial means… allow you to put there. You will
accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing
number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the
more you know, the larger the rows of unread books.”
The benefits of
having a home library were actually the subject of an incredible 20-year study
out of the University of Nevada, Reno, spanning 27 countries that showed having
a 500-book library at home is linked to an additional 3.2 years of advanced
schooling, on average.
Meira: The
conventional wisdom was always that the greatest predictor of a child attaining
higher levels of education is the educational level of the parents. But this
study found that the effect of having at least 500 books at home was equivalent
to the difference in education reached by a child of university educated
parents compared to a child of parents who have only three years of schooling.
Aharon: The lead
author, Mariah Evans, pointed out that the effect was found among children
raised in homes even with as few as 20 books, as she quipped, “You get a lot of
bang for your book.”
Meira: In
school, when we complete a novel, I feel dejected when I see my students
gleefully turning in their school assigned books, rejoicing that they will
never again need them. I remember one time clearing off my shelf of older books
that I knew I would never read again, and feeling a tinge of sadness that I
might not visit those characters or worlds ever again.
Aharon: As you
well know, I share that problem and have a very difficult time discarding old
books. Sometimes I will pick up a newer copy of one that is falling apart on my
shelf, but I still have trouble tossing out the tattered original that I so
dearly enjoyed as a child.
Meira: In
addition to the competition reading has from movies, TV, and computer games,
there is the problem of school and homework. No matter a book’s subject or
characters, if it is assigned reading, the book becomes loathsome. Once
something enters the realm of homework, it is universally detested. For some
students, two classes of reading are formed: reading for fun and reading for
school. But, unfortunately for many students, reading itself becomes the focus
of their ire.
In high school we
had a truly fabulous teacher who created a reading competition that broke that
mold. For an entire month, she got us all reading. Every day we would input the
number of hours we had read, and she distributed prizes to the winners in each
grade, class, etc. We would come into school and eagerly ask each other what we
were reading, was it good, and what would we read next. Reading was center
stage; it was something that we looked forward to and that excited us.
Aharon: I am
reminded of one of my favorite TED Talks by Sir Ken Robinson: “Do Schools Kill
Creativity?” (A must watch!) As teachers, we do have that effect; we take the
natural joy of learning and turn it into a chore.
Meira: One of
the major pieces of advice I have found around this topic is giving kids a choice
in terms of what they read. Reading begets reading.
Aharon: As Diane
Duane puts it, “Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
Meira: Allowing students to select reading material
according to their own interests can go a long way to mitigating the negative
associations with school. Whether it is graphic novels, comics, magazines,
books, or even listening to books on tape, students who are engaged with
reading material tend to gain all or most of the benefits associated with
reading. Virginia Clinton-Lisell, a professor in educational psychology at the
University of North Dakota, who specializes in language and reading
comprehension, conducted a large analysis that found comprehension was similar
between people who read a book and people who listened to one. “Those kids who
struggle with the decoding or are finding it frustrating are maybe kids who
have a hard time just sitting still and reading,” she says. “Playing an audiobook is a great
option. Play audiobooks when you’re driving, or maybe have an audiobook playing
while your child is doing Legos or whatever else.”
The issue arises,
of course, of how to specifically bring that into the classroom – how to teach
critical reading skills when students are not using the same text. Having a
classroom discussion analyzing plot devices, literary techniques, symbolism, or
character development is not so simple logistically, if you allow such wide latitude
to your students.
Aharon: Like
everything we do in the classroom, it is a balance. One thing I do in the
classroom is read aloud to my students. Reading aloud engages them and can
transform their experience. Most of the research done in this arena has focused
on parents reading aloud to their children or on teachers of much younger
children, but I have found anecdotal evidence that similar effects exist in the
classroom even for high school students. The landmark study completed in 1985,
titled “Becoming a Nation of Readers” found that reading aloud is “the single
most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual
success in reading.” Since that study, many more have confirmed that reading
aloud to your children is of the utmost importance.
Meira: It is
amazing to consider that, in our age of education reforms, advanced educational
tools and techniques, and ever more expensive toys, gadgets, and materials, the
number one tool at our disposal has been there all along and is absolutely
free. Simply reading aloud to your child can have long-term benefits across
their entire academic career.
Aharon: At the
end of the day, as both parents and educators, we need to adjust our goals.
While we all want our students to gain valuable reading and writing skills, we
also need to recognize that inculcating a love of reading may be just as
important to their long-term success as teaching those skills. And, perhaps,
allowing for more flexibility in the classroom and at home may encourage that
love, even if we are unable to achieve other goals. Imagine a child running
home to pick up a good book much as a child might run home to greet a pet dog
after being away from it for the whole day. As Groucho Marx put it, “Outside of
a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
Aharon and
Meira:
As always, there is so much more to say, but we will need to leave it there. If
you have any questions that have bothered you about general studies in our
schools, please send them and any suggestions, topics, or comments to the
editor.
