Reading: The Curse of Childhood?
- Jun 9, 2017
- 4 min read
This article’s title comes from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of whose main premises was learning by nature. He called reading “the curse of childhood,” saying that reading was the only occupation for children; all the while it was a pitiful one. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems like nowadays, kids and teenagers don’t read for pleasure—at least, that is what adults probably think. As somebody who has always enjoyed a good book, and grown up around people who were always reading, I was interested to find out whether this conjecture held true at our school.
For this study, I asked thirty-nine participants some short questions about their reading-for-pleasure habits. I defined reading-for-pleasure as reading books OUTSIDE of those assigned, or, in other words, mandatory; I acknowledge that reading for an English class, for example, can be a joy. However, the goal of my study was not to find out how much we like reading, but rather how much we choose to read. I interviewed eight ninth graders, twelve tenth graders, ten juniors, and nine seniors. I also chose a variety of places and times of day in which I would conduct interviews: both floors of Klein during school and activity period, and all of the library, the Coop, the STEM center, and the first floor of Leggett both during activity period and after school.
Note: For anthropological research, sample sizes are often small since gathering information take a significant amount of time. When reading, please bring your focus more towards the qualitative results than the quantitative.
The questions asked were as follows:
Do you read for pleasure, as in, of your own choosing/outside of school? Why, or why not?
How many books would you say you read for pleasure per year? (Note the “would”: the numbers people gave were estimates.)
What is your favorite genre?
How would you say your reading habits and preferences have changed over time? (This was asked to only a few participants, since it is more qualitative and for my own understanding.)
The results were varied, so a median expresses the average student better than the mean does. The median number of books per year (outside of schoolwork) for the whole Upper School was five, which sounds fairly impressive. Broken down by grade, it was five for the ninth grade, two to three for the tenth grade, five for the eleventh grade, and zero for the twelfth grade. However, several students told me that they enjoy reading media such as magazines and business articles; I did not count this in the data, but it is important to note.
Most people I interviewed who read, read to escape reality--to have a break from their busy and often stressful lives. Our most common genres fit under the labels of fantasy and sci-fi, which should not surprise in the context of our busy lives. About half of participants said they simply do not enjoy reading. The activity cannot hold their attention, so they do not partake in it—is Netflix to blame? According to a study conducted by NYU journalism professor Mitchell Stephens, as television has grown more popular, the percentage of books people finish has decreased—and so have teenagers’ SAT scores. Reading requires more concentration than watching television does, so the choice to partake in the latter is understandable. Besides, we students are too busy for either activity the vast majority of the time. That is the reason many interviewees said that they read more in the summer; they just have more time then.
Some kids at our school, however, read against all odds. On the second floor of Klein, for example, was a group of tenth and eleventh graders rife with readers. Their enthusiasm at the topic’s mentioning was palpable; I had to interrupt their conversation about books they liked and reading habits they had several times to ask questions. One student told me about how she’d done a reading competition in middle school, reading ten thousand books in a year. Now, she manages a mere one thousand. Why does she like reading so much? “It’s the one thing I’m certain that I’m good at.”
The conversation on the second floor of Klein continued with a discussion about reading for school versus reading for pleasure; this group makes a definite distinction between the two. A tenth grader commented that he enjoys reading because “[I] can go at my own pace. If you’re at school and they force you to read, it takes the fun away.” This point is of particular interest to me, partly because it answers one of my questions to a T: I am curious, after all about our student body’s choice to read or not to read, and their reason for that choice. This student reads because he can go at his own pace. The book is in his domain, not anybody else’s. Several other students agreed with him. One student became rather emotional and impassioned; in her words, “Reading has helped me a lot and made me the person I am.” She is not the only student who has found comfort, or inspiration, in books; reading has helped shape our community. This student continued, “...get off the devices for 30 seconds. I HATE E-BOOKS!” This particular comment was intriguing to me.
Where electronics promote progress, efficiency, and organization, does reading promote reflection and ease for us? Perhaps any sort of combination of the two is a little frightening to those who seek solace in reading. Technology is invading their realm and trying to modernize it; a Luddite reaction, therefore, should be expected. On a more mundane note, we tend to associate reading with scholarship. Whether or not our link is justified, it exists in our minds. So I leave you with the forewarning of a senior who does not read for pleasure: “I feel like a loser now. This is the reason I didn’t get into my first choice college.”
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