Sometimes English teachers get upset if our students don’t seem to love reading as much as we do. In the days when some of us grew up, books were frequently the main source of entertainment: we escaped to the lands of Oz and Tolkien’s Middle Earth, traveled to Treasure Island, and visited Ann Radcliffe’s gothic castles or Jane Austen’s drawing rooms.
One of the explanations for a decline in reading books is that today’s students have more entertainment options than we did at their age. Video games, digital music players, and DVD rentals, for example, offer far more choices to fill up the precious, elusive leisure time that could also be spent curled up with a good book. The most recently cited “culprit” for stealing reading time is the Internet, particularly the social network sites…
But instead of being a grumbly old teacher who complains about “kids these days,” I prefer to look at things from a more positive perspective:
Maybe students aren’t reading as many full-length novels—but whenever they’re on a computer, they’re likely still doing some reading. The Internet could be considered the world’s biggest book (and one that changes by the second!).
As part of my teaching job, I get to make students read GREAT classic stories they might not otherwise read on their own time. I wonder if I should assign another, really big book…
I could give extra credit points to any students who actually finish reading the entire Internet… Good luck!
~Dr. Norman Prentiss
English Department Chair
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