To the Editor:
I emphatically agree with “Without Reading, There Is No Learning,” by Tim Donahue (Opinion visitor essay, Feb. 25).
On the primary day of my freshman writing class final semester on the College of Minnesota, once I requested the scholars to inform me a couple of work of literature that they had loved, one 18-year-old mentioned he couldn’t title one, as a result of “highschool English killed my love of studying.”
He went on to clarify that he had been assigned parts and summaries of novels — excerpts adopted by quizzes, maybe to arrange him for the SATs. Would artwork historical past academics assign the left half of Picasso’s “Guernica” or the Mona Lisa? Literature is an artwork type. Let’s deal with it like one.
Julie Schumacher
St. Paul, Minn.
To the Editor:
Tim Donahue’s inspiring essay about studying bought me enthusiastic about how obsessed we’re in our tradition with making the whole lot “person pleasant.” There could also be good intentions behind this, however in doing so we frequently deny our learners the rewards of mastering one thing tough.
Younger musicians and athletes are fortunate. They don’t have any alternative however to smile and bear a newbie’s frustration at ability constructing. A musician should make music to grow to be one. Enjoying a sport makes the athlete.
There isn’t a motive we shouldn’t ask the identical of our budding readers, as Mr. Donahue recommends we do, and demand they grow to be higher at it by sticking with materials that’s more durable to understand. Consider the disservice achieved F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, “The Nice Gatsby,” when an educator decides that the phrases the writer selected with inventive precision will be discarded in favor of a abstract.
For no matter motive, now we have determined that each scholar should be in a mad rush to grow to be educated. Considerate studying requires time. Allow us to give it to them. As Mr. Donahue says so movingly, their studying will grow to be a part of who they’re. They’ll thank us for it.
Margaret McGirr
Greenwich, Conn.
To the Editor:
“College students aren’t studying” just isn’t the identical as “college students can’t learn.” For the second 12 months in a row, my second-semester seniors are studying — sure, entire books. As a category, we voted on what to learn, they usually selected up to date texts with points they may relate to, would relate to, or would quickly be grappling with (sports activities tradition, sexual assault, gun violence, psychological well being and others). Typically in style fiction commerce books permit for a neater entry level for discussing subjects near them.
Expectations from the start had been that college students had been companions of their studying, from guide option to serving as dialogue leaders. Engagement was anticipated and, in flip, occurred. I nonetheless use experiential studying to boost the unique textual content however not substitute it.
We should do not forget that college students are succesful and deal with them as such. My college students shocked themselves; one senior mentioned, “I observed, I used to be taking time to learn earlier than mattress,” and one other, “I can’t bear in mind the final time I sat nonetheless and browse 50 pages.”
Lecturers should imagine what we all know to be true — that if we create the circumstances, college students can and can learn. Sure, even a complete guide.
Erin O’Connell
Pennington, N.J.
The author is an English instructor on the Pennington College.
To the Editor:
As a book-loving senior at a public highschool, I’ve witnessed the discount of studying in English courses. In the course of the entirety of my required ninth-, Tenth- and Eleventh-grade English programs, I used to be assigned solely three full books: “The Lord of the Flies,” the younger grownup novel “Bronx Masquerade” and the graphic novel model of Malcolm X’s autobiography. I used to be left to learn Henry James, Zora Neale Hurston, George Eliot and different authors by myself time.
I used to be not alone in craving extra literary depth; I lately realized that one instructor, bored with listening to college students ask why they’re studying the graphic novel as a substitute of the total prose model of Malcolm X’s autobiography, determined to offer them the choice to learn both one. Many college students now select to learn each.
The one factor worse than gutting the English curriculum as a result of college students don’t need to learn is gutting the English curriculum when college students do need to learn.
Margot Kelsey
Cambridge, Mass.
To the Editor:
I’ve a studying incapacity that has by no means been formally recognized. I learn very slowly, drift off and infrequently discover that after a web page, I’ve little recollection of what I’ve learn. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve stored this a secret to this very day.
Rising up within the Nineteen Sixties, I used to be punished for having bother studying — made to remain after college as a result of I couldn’t get my work achieved and being made to spend practically all of third grade within the nook. I used to be known as “lazy.” Fortunately, I invented workarounds, and realized from TV, radio and flicks, and from listening to specialists.
I can’t say I’m blissful about having a studying drawback, however I’ve “realized.” I’ve grow to be an professional in my discipline, and a profitable writer and have even written for this newspaper. Synthetic intelligence studying applications might assist me sooner or later and even change my life, if it’s not too late. We’ll see.
I’m not recommending not studying, in fact. I’m simply encouraging understanding and endurance with these of us who’ve by no means skilled the same old “pleasure of studying” that we hear about on a regular basis.
We’ve got phrases for studying issues in the present day. I hope extra kids will be patiently helped and never made to really feel the best way I did rising up.
Ken Druse
Newton, N.J.
The author is the writer of a number of illustrated books on horticulture and the setting.
To the Editor:
Tim Donahue is completely right. Studying is studying, however there’s extra to it. As one among my faculty professors mentioned a few years in the past, “If you wish to write properly, learn excellent writers.”
Studying good writers conveys the perception as to how they construction their arguments and set up their ideas. Following their examples helps to prepare one’s personal pondering, whether or not written or spoken. The potential for data and perception to be gained from studying them is infinite.
Ben Myers
Harvard, Mass.
