Ramblings On Reading

I pour a cup of coffee and prepare to immerse myself in a library book—until Joel wanders by. Reading is not his idea of entertainment, so he doesn’t understand my inability to concentrate on a book while carrying on a conversation about his missing socks.

Though his teachers taught him to read, they were unable to inspire him to love doing so. And that’s OK.

During my career, I worked with various committees on curricular goals for literacy. Frequently we had heated discussions about an objective often found in such documents: “Students will read for pleasure.”

I remember a stern fellow who taught middle school arguing against the inclusion of such a goal in a literature curriculum: “Only English teachers would think everyone should love reading. What’s wrong with learning to read so you possess a necessary skill? Math teachers don’t think their students should solve equations for pleasure.”

He…