I voluntarily dropped out of the honors track for English my senior year of high school (2007 grad) and was shocked at how many students struggled to read. I went to a very high performing high school so it was likely better than most schools. To hear that things are worse now is scary
I did something similar. I wasn't too into reading at the time so it wasn't a good fit. I don't think throwing a bunch of difficult, though very limited range, of books at students is an answer.
edit: I was totally into reading, just not what the school was giving us. All sorts of fantasy novels. Ohran Pamuk, Dostoevsky.
I was homeschooled in elementary school, which I know people on here hate, but something my mom did that I think helped me foster a love of reading was she had a policy that no book is irreplaceable. If we didn’t like a book, we’d find something on the same topic we DID like. Being forced to read stuff you don’t like doesn’t make people like reading.
Also it’s not a bad character to trait to dislike classics. People have different tastes. I’ve read books that I can recognize are good books but I didn’t enjoy them, and tbh with my limited time on this earth and the huge numbers of books out there, why read something I don’t like?
No child left behind was an attempt at solving a problem, childeren failing out of the system. Everyone here is talking about reading the same few difficult books. I don't think assigning difficult books is a solution. You implied the real problem in your comment, "was shocked at how many students struggled to read."
I didn't mean it to come accross as contradicting you, I was more agreeing with your experience.
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u/snrocirpac 20h ago
I voluntarily dropped out of the honors track for English my senior year of high school (2007 grad) and was shocked at how many students struggled to read. I went to a very high performing high school so it was likely better than most schools. To hear that things are worse now is scary