"[E]njoyment, I think, is what we're after, at least at the secondary school level, where our students are going to grow up to be pediatricians and politicians, carpenters and car mechanics, bookkeepers and beekeepers, but only very rarely English majors who need [...] early lit[erary] crit[icism] training. What we want is to excite them about reading while they are in school, help them share our love of it, so that they will remain readers when they are adults [...]. And they will be readers to their children, too, so that the cycle of enjoyment of print will continue" (112).
Wow.
What can I say about that? Isn't that what every English teacher desires? I know I do. I want my students to love reading. Not reading for the sake of dissecting every little thing about the current novel they're into. I want them to love reading because it's fun and they can get lost in another world. I want the next generation to love reading.
How do we get that mentality shift for everyone? How do we come to the realization that it's okay to simply read a novel to appreciate the world that it draws you into?
If you've got any solutions, please let me know. Until then, Daniel Sheridan and I have a standing date to figure it out.
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