Post 6: "Readicide"

"Readicide"

I do think Readicide is a problem at schools, not necessarily because of the specific books that are picked, but the assignments that go along with the book. I feel like many times, teachers are hoping that students find all the tiny details and students are often missing the big picture of the book. I think books can send different messages to people and teachers seem to be looking for one specific message, missing what it might send to each student. I know I have often wondered what the point of a specific worksheet was because I saw no relevance to the book.

I completely agree that the books studied at school should be half literary fiction and half commercial fiction. I think teachers should teach half and half because not only to students tend to enjoy commercial fiction more, but now they will be more rounded in their knowledge of books. I like when Kim Wright says “A good book is a good book. I’ve decided that genre is strictly a marketing tool”. I feel like teaching books is being complicated by arguing literary fictions vs. commercial fiction; teachers should just teach a broad scope of books. I don’t necessarily think we should swap the classics for modern books, but combine the two and broaden what books are taught. I agree with Laura Miller: just being the book is “modern” does not mean important and traditional “themes and wisdoms” cannot be taken out of it.