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Did/do you hate being forced to read books in school?
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LOL, Anne. At least he didn't have to read Moby Dick. 600 pages on how to tie a sailor's knot.
new_user wrote: "LOL, Anne. At least he didn't have to read Moby Dick. 600 pags on how to tie a sailor's knot."Having been an English major I always feel like I should read Moby-Dick or, The Whale, but I've never been able to bring myself to pick it up; from the book store or the library. Maybe I'll get there someday, I did like Bartleby the Scrivener A Story of Wall Street in school, which is also by Melville, so maybe it won't be so bad.
new_user wrote: "LOL, Anne. At least he didn't have to read Moby Dick. 600 pags on how to tie a sailor's knot."Yes! I agree reading about tying a sailor's knot wouldn't help my poor kid. LOL! He had some learning disabilities and reading was pure torture for him when he first started. It was really just icing on the cake when the story out of his reader was something stupid. Believe me, he could not have cared less about a story featuring a little girl who liked to dance with her grandma, or the woman who grew the biggest pumpkin in her village. He would just sit at the kitchen table and cry when it was time to do his reading assignment in the evening. He hated it because it was hard for him, and he couldn't understand why anyone would bother reading if all the books were that boring. So, I started buying him comic book subscriptions. He loved them! After a while, I started catching him in his room at night, under the covers, trying to sound out the words. I swear, I almost cried the first time I saw him doing it. In my opinion, Spiderman and the X-Men really do have superpowers!
Aw, that's so sweet, Anne. I'm really happy you were able to find something he enjoyed. :) Lisa Anne, unfortunately, Moby Dick is nothing like Bartleby. I liked that one too. LOL. Bartleby was actually a departure in his career, for which he was flamed by his publisher, LOL.
new_user wrote: Lisa Anne, unfortunately, Moby Dick is nothing like Bartleby. I liked that one too. LOL. Bartleby was ac..."
Aw that's a shame. I thought Bartleby had such interesting points about social convention without being too wordy. From the looks of it Moby Dick seems to get into the too wordy. haha.
No I didn't hate being forced to read any books in school, it opened my eyes to a whole new world in all the subjects I read on and people that lived hundereds anf thousands of years ago.
Books you're forced to read are nowhere near as good as books you choose to read ... which I found out when I chose to read Jane Eyre after graduating high school. Hated reading it to a schedule to discuss, but loved it as a book to lose myself in for several summer afternoons.
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Did you ever read the other two books in the series?
Gathering Blue
Messenger
Wow, I didn't even know it was a series. That book was powerful. It stayed with me too.
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They're considered "companion novels", I guess. It's not a typical series where the author keeps all of the characters from the previous books, but the books are lumped together for some reason. I haven't read the other two, just heard of them...
I hated being "told" what to read. I had so many books I refused to read because I was told to (yes I was a brat). I think maybe I'll look back and get a list started so I can read them now. Maybe I'll enjoy them.
Well this makes me regret not getting "The Giver" in the thrift store... T_T
I've decided I really don't like the phrase "forced to read books in school" because I never really felt like it was forced on me. I mean I hated math classes, but I never would use the term I was "forced" to do math worksheets. I was given math problems as homework and I chose to do them so I could pass the class. It's the same with school books, you can choose to actually do the work and try to get something out of them or you can skip to the spark notes version (which I occasionally did). It's a school assignment just like anything else in school.
I generally liked what we read. But I agree with what someone else said; I hated having to dissect every paragraph to see what the author possibly meant. Just enjoy the story. Yeah, Animal Farm had a meaning. I don't need to dissect Tom Sawyer though. I remember in 8th grade we read, "My Brother Sam is Dead". It was a story about the Revolutionary War and I loved it so much I went and bought my own copy. The worst part about reading in school though was when the teacher made us read out loud. I've always been a fast reader and there were always those kids that read painfully slow. So it never failed that when I got called on to read, I was already 2 pages ahead and did not have a clue what I was supposed to be reading.
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OMG Joy that is all so true! I was always nodding off...ESPECIALLY when the teacher read! I had a English teacher in HS that had a slight stutter and an accent (she was from India I believe) so it was that much worse...she was the sweetest woman though. She stopped reading in front of the class when she noticed more people nodding off than just me! lol
Kristina wrote: "I generally liked what we read. But I agree with what someone else said; I hated having to dissect every paragraph to see what the author possibly meant. Just enjoy the story. Yeah, Animal Farm h..."lol I hated that too. I am a fast reader, and it drove me crazy when we had to dissect everything. It annoyed me because some of the things should have been obvious and I didn't like being treated like we were idiots, lol. I hated having to read out loud as well, for the same reasons. I wanted to move along in the story, not listen to the teacher or students in bored, monotone voices.
The only thing worse than the teacher reading to us was when they would go around the classroom and make us students read out loud. There were always a few kids whose reading skills were awful. I always felt so bad for them, because you could tell they were embarrassed. Not to mention, there were always a few kids who snickered or made some rude comment to them.
I think that a lot of good readers could not read aloud very well because they moved into fast silent reading early. My daughter was kept out of an advanced English class by a teacher who tested her by having her read aloud and who apologized to both of us a month later when she realized that my daughter belonged in the advanced group. Her reading was fine. She just hadn't read aloud in years and didn't have a lot of practice in doing that.
BonFire wrote: "Kristina wrote: "I generally liked what we read. But I agree with what someone else said; I hated having to dissect every paragraph to see what the author possibly meant. Just enjoy the story. Ye..."Yeah, it may seem like common sense, but the teachers repeat important concepts aloud to reinforce/elaborate upon them and to pick out the principles that allow them to connect one work to another, etc. :)
My 10 yr old daughter was in the advanced reading group as well. They took her out because she wasn't a very good "explainer". She KNEW what the book was about but couldn't figure out how to put it in her own words. Usually she could explain it to me with no problem but in front of teachers she had issues. I was the same way. She read well out loud for the most part but was shy so in front of a big group it was hard for her.
I understand trying to get across and reinforce concepts. Like in my example of Animal Farm, there is a lot that needs to be explained but it's interesting to find out that a certain character represents Stalin and there's a whole history lesson that goes with it. But I remember at some point in high school, we were reading a story that I really enjoyed (don't remember which one now) but after the teacher got done analyzing and dissecting, it just sucked the joy out of the story. I had a teacher in 8th grade that had a list of books she wanted us to read as a class throughout the year. And it was just for us to read and be exposed to different writing styles and then we would discuss concepts and ideas when we finished the book. She brought important issues to our attention without sucking the fun out of reading. I loved that teacher!
There are a lot of kids out there who don't have an easy time reading and understanding books. I think most of the time, teacher are trying to reach these students, too. Maybe we should count ourselves lucky that we were only bored during class and not bored and struggling. It's too bad that everyone can't lose themselves in a good book.
The first time I was asked to read a novel, in High School, I just read the entire thing in one gasp just like I always read books. Then, I might re-read some of it for the class so I remembered what they were talking about.For some weird reason there weren't a lot of novels on my reading lists all the way through college English classes. But it seems to me that if you want to read the book you just go ahead and read and enjoy it. Sounds like I was lucky to have just fallen over that idea very young.
I was very fortunate - never had a teacher that required students to read aloud and always had teachers that were excited about what was assigned for reading.
Mawgojzeta wrote: "I was very fortunate - never had a teacher that required students to read aloud and always had teachers that were excited about what was assigned for reading. "You were fortunate! I remember one of my high school english teachers would misspell words! It was so funny when I was younger, but now that I look back on it...not so much.
Anne: I had a teacher for my Shakespeare class that would jump around the room while she re-enacted portions of a play by being EVERY character. It was great!My school system had speech classes available and debate groups, which may be why reading aloud in other classes was not so common. Either that, or I simply got lucky with the classes I took.
Wow! I'm turning a brilliant shade of green right now!
I loved reading at school! That's why I'm going to study literature lol! I think it's interesting because they make me read books that I would never read, so it's always an experience -good or bad!-
Emma wrote: "I loved reading at school! That's why I'm going to study literature lol! I think it's interesting because they make me read books that I would never read, so it's always an experience -good or bad!-"I love your view on this Emma! :) I majored in literature in college and absolutely loved it!
Lisa Anne: I hope I will like it just as much as you did! =)
I loved it because it made me a better person. I hope that you will be able to read more about my journey in my blog. I believe that you will find a lot of interesting stuff there.
School made me hate both reading and writing. I could not force myself to write until I graduated college. Then was http://www.writingroom.com/viewwriting/Sarah_Brinson/The-7-worst-ways-to-start-your-novel which is one of my first articles (and one of the best ones), and the rest is history. I am planning to publish my first book later this year!
Back in my day's yes I dreaded reading books. But now as an adult I am always reading more then one book. Go figure, I've got several book blog's going on☺🙃 now.
I hated being told what to read when I was in school. Of course, there were some stories that I ended up liking (A Wrinkle in Time, An Old-Fashioned Girl, and the Scarlett Letter are a few that come to mind). I didn't like that they got to chose which books I read. However, being forced to read was not entirely a bad thing, I don't think, as it introduced me to books I wouldn't have thought to read on my own.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Gathering Blue (other topics)Messenger (other topics)
The Giver (other topics)
Bartleby the Scrivener (other topics)
Moby-Dick or, The Whale (other topics)
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I think the separate books we would do for reading circles and such were much better, such as Bridge to Terabithia, Number the Stars and The Picture of Dorian Gray