Readicide Post

Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide book is something that all future (and current) teachers need to read. Today, we have an alarmingly high number of students who do not want to read. In fact, if students were given the choice, they would probably prefer to go to the doctor or the dentist rather than ever looking at something that they have to read. We are teaching students that all they need to do is pass a standardized test to reflect their intelligence, and sending them off into the world with no ability to perform literary tasks. We are doing it to ourselves, and if we do not correct how we teach reading now, then the future looks bleak.

I remember when I was younger, that I didn’t like to read. I would rather have had my teeth pulled out than to pick up anything to read. It wasn’t until I was in middle school that I found a love of reading, and since then I haven’t wanted to stop. Sure, there were some setbacks from teachers and professors who wanted to talk about books to death, or an excessive amount of reading material that needed to be completed in a short period that made me take a break from reading. But I always come back because I love to read.

Right now, we are killing students drive to read. And we need to stop. We need to go back to the practices of having students being held accountable for their reading, and cultivate their desire to continue to read. Students need to have materials that they are interested in, and they do not need to be taught just how to pass a test. If students are being taught the right way, then they will be given the tools to pass tests without being taught to the test. We need to help our students because we are not doing them any favors with them not having to read.