I was leery of reading the article “Stories Don’t Need Morals or Messages” by Laura Miller, but then I pondered, “What exactly does she mean by that?” I began reading it and was reminded of another article I read from the New York Times about a year ago entitled “Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children”. Both articles shared similar underlying themes that children need to read what we tell them to so they can “get ahead,” do well on tests, and get into good colleges and universities; no more reading for fun. Articles like this make me cringe because of what they indicate. There are people in this world who believe that reading can’t be just for pure enjoyment anymore. Why not? Connecting with a good book can warm your heart, take you on a fantastic journey, or open your eyes to revolutionary ideas.
Miller is right when she mentions that ‘Puritan’-like professionals create new state assessments each year, but my argument is that we need to drastically lessen test prepping. Why should we limit what our children read to prepare them for random questions on a state test or ‘prepare’ them for real life? Reading fiction can release unlimited amounts of imagination, invention, and creative thought.
If you think about it, much of state assessment is about problem solving. So in general, the more a child reads, the more vocabulary and experiences they are filing away in their brains, and the better they will probably do on any assessments.
In my educational profession, children need to want to read. But just as professionals who have parts of their jobs they dislike, so do children (I had state tests and science classes to suffer through almost every year in school). If you want to change something, change how our schools focus on state test results to determine how much funding they receive or whether or not the government overhauls them. Take action or stop complaining. State assessments are not the sole determination of a school’s or child’s worth.
Reading shouldn’t have to be forced. Reading shouldn’t have to be work. Reading should be about choice. Yes, there are things children are told they have to read. There are things adults are told they have to read. If you do enough reading for pure enjoyment, those other laborious, assigned reading choices aren’t a big deal. People read for so many different reasons: love of a particular author, love of a particular genre, curiosity about a new genre or author, curiosity about a book title, interest in learning something new, longing for a connection to a troubled character, longing to escape reality for a while, participation in book clubs because they love books that much, and so on.
Children need to be exposed to all different kinds of reading material, such as magazines, newspapers, comics, books, and more. They need to find the genres they are passionate about and dig in to those good books they grow to love and remember as adults. My recommendation: just let them read!
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