Blog #6: readicide

Blog #6
I think that Readicide is a real problem in our public schools. I think students aren’t interested in reading because they are required to analyze books so much that the reading isn’t enjoyable anymore. I think books like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and Brave New World would all be enjoyable if I had read them outside of my English classroom. Once I had to annotate, analyze, and write an three page essay on these novels, I didn’t enjoy these books anymore. I didn’t want to read these on my own time because I had so many bad experiences from school. I do not think genre fiction is less “worthy” than literary fiction, but I don’t think they should place genre fiction or best sellers in the curriculum because it would also ruin genre fiction for the students. I think it would only be acceptable if students didn’t have to have to analyze every idea, theme and symbol from the text. Once a student is assigned to do this, they will most likely become less motivated to enjoy or even read the text. I think this class does a very good job at keeping students motivated to read and enjoy reading outside of school. I think genre fiction is very important and is just as worthy as literary fiction, but I believe it should stay at home where it can be enjoyed. I would NOT be okay with switching out Of Mice and Men for Twilight because it is a very specific genre. With all the romance in this book, every boy in America would rebel if we did this. In 20 years, every student would hate this book. It doesn’t matter what book it is, students are not going to enjoy the book they’ve been asked to analyze.