Why do schools make students read books?

They do it to to kill your interest in reading.

About your second point, many schools do use movies to teach students. In my world history last year, we would watch Gladiator when we were learning about Ancient Rome and Monty Python and the Holy Grail when learning about the Middle Ages. Personally, I don't think this was educational at all and a complete waste of class time, but hey, I can't complain.

[QUOTE="WhiteKnight77"]

[QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

I can't think of any video game with any real academic value tho.

gamerguru100

That was my point.

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"][QUOTE="WhiteKnight77"]Forget about video games. CoD does not have a plot and the only thing required is to kill scores of enemies. Does not make for a good term paper.GreySeal9

I can't think of any video game with any real academic value tho.

Also, Number Munchers and the Jump Start series :P

EDIT: SIMS! Racing Sims, Flying Sims, THE Sims, Sims City, Sims Tower, Oregon Trail. Typing games.

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"][QUOTE="WhiteKnight77"]Forget about video games. CoD does not have a plot and the only thing required is to kill scores of enemies. Does not make for a good term paper.GreySeal9

I can't think of any video game with any real academic value tho.

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"][QUOTE="WhiteKnight77"]Forget about video games. CoD does not have a plot and the only thing required is to kill scores of enemies. Does not make for a good term paper.GreySeal9

I can't think of any video game with any real academic value tho.

The problem is that schools tells kids WHAT they have to read. I used to be a huge reader until I got to the age where schools told us what we had to read and then made us write papers on said books. It completely killed my love of reading and I know it's the case for many others.

Pirate700

They do it to to kill your interest in reading.

About your second point, many schools do use movies to teach students. In my world history last year, we would watch Gladiator when we were learning about Ancient Rome and Monty Python and the Holy Grail when learning about the Middle Ages. Personally, I don't think this was educational at all and a complete waste of class time, but hey, I can't complain.

Gorillanator

It has awhile since I studied English in school, but from my experience I found it to be a mixed bag of enjoyable activities like learning about Shakespeare, the themes he used etc to mind numbingly dull books like Oliver Twist. The problem is that the way schools want you to learn to read is in very narrow minded way by almost making it a crime for you to disregard a classic that you couldn't become invested in or care about. People have different taste and opionions especially about art and literature.

Take into account the many forms of literature out there and the different ways there are presented to the reader from a novel, poetry to a comic the list goes on. To be honest this image sums up the way I feel about the way it's taught, just change the context.

Some of the books that students have to read in school aren't even English. Old English is barely English at all, they feel like completely different languages.goobertaco45

You have never had to read anything in Old English for school (unless you're studying Old English).

They do it to to kill your interest in reading.Gorillanator

[QUOTE="goobertaco45"]Some of the books that students have to read in school aren't even English. Old English is barely English at all, they feel like completely different languages.worlock77

You have never had to read anything in Old English for school (unless you're studying Old English).

[QUOTE="worlock77"]

[QUOTE="goobertaco45"]Some of the books that students have to read in school aren't even English. Old English is barely English at all, they feel like completely different languages.LJS9502_basic

You have never had to read anything in Old English for school (unless you're studying Old English).

i had enough trouble reading shakspeare. how'd you do it?

they are borning and school was never fun

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"][QUOTE="worlock77"]

You have never had to read anything in Old English for school (unless you're studying Old English).

funtimez12345

i had enough trouble reading shakspeare. how'd you do it?

they are borning and school was never fun

almasdeathchild

[QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]

they are borning and school was never fun

Mike-uk

[QUOTE="Mike-uk"][QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]

they are borning and school was never fun

almasdeathchild

[QUOTE="funtimez12345"]

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"] Not true. We had to read Beowulf....which is Old English...and I was not studying Old English.LJS9502_basic

i had enough trouble reading shakspeare. how'd you do it?

[QUOTE="Mike-uk"][QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]

they are borning and school was never fun

almasdeathchild

[QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]

[QUOTE="Mike-uk"] Well clearly you should have paid more attention in school, you cannot even spell. Mike-uk

[QUOTE="Mike-uk"][QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]english isnt my original language

almasdeathchild

[QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]

[QUOTE="Mike-uk"] May I ask what is your I.Q.?Mike-uk

[QUOTE="Mike-uk"][QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]if i remember it's 160+

funtimez12345

[QUOTE="funtimez12345"]

[QUOTE="Mike-uk"] We share a close I.Q. level, mine is 162. almasdeathchild

[QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]

[QUOTE="funtimez12345"]because we asked, right?

Mike-uk

I used to be a huge reader until I got to the age where schools told us what we had to read and then made us write papers on said books. It completely killed my love of reading and I know it's the case for many others.

Pirate700

Remember kids, it's not the books fault you fail to establish an emotional connection to it.

[QUOTE="Mike-uk"][QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]incomming party poopa

almasdeathchild

[QUOTE="almasdeathchild"]

[QUOTE="Mike-uk"] I know tell me about it. Btw on an unrelated note, your sig reminds me very much of the video game Fear. Mike-uk

I liked probably over half the books I had to read. Frankenstein is one of my favorite books and I only read it because I had to.

I think the best way to do it is to give students a selection of books and then they get to pick whatever they want off of it. That way students and teachers are happy.

cain006

This, I like. One teacher I had let is pick any books we wanted to read over the course of the year, so I picked a wide variety. Frankenstein, Tuesdays with Morrie, Hamlet, parts of the Illiad, and even the first three Halo novels (I though the halo books would suck, but honestly, they were really good and I just shake my head in shame at the video games now...the books were so much deeper and more serious and fleshed out)

I think there is a lot of value to be had from reading through older literature because it helps develop a person's vocabulary, but I think teachers should try to hook students with some more modern literature that appeals to their tastes. I think most good teachers do a mix of both, and I think it is the right way to go. Literacy is important.rragnaar

I actually really like reading in school. It introduced me to a lot of books I love now like Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Great Gatsby.

I felt the same way about most of the books at school but I still read many other books that I was more interested in at the time like I Am Legend and Decline of the West.

What will they think of next? Make you do math problems?

Because they want us to be exposed to The Scarlet Letter. >.>

Threads like these just rip my heart out as a lover of literature. Books can be so much more than movies or games can ever be. Literature is an incredible thing. It's dense and thought-provoking like no other form out there. It basically begs to be mulled over and revisited. It forces us to consider new ideas and perspectives, it expands our horizons, and it just generally leads to tremendous intellectual and personal growth. I have never come across anything else that is so filled with wisdom, subtlty and complexity than a great work of literature which is why I hate reading through threads like this. I hate hearing how everyone suffers through it in high school, how the old classics are worthless and boring because literature is such a valuable and beautiful thing.

That is why it is so important that we not only keep teaching english and reading, but keep teaching literature. Everyone is always concerned with just making sure kids actually enjoy reading; so many seem to view it as a job skill, a necessary commodity in a knowledge-based economy. But just getting our kids to read should not be the end goal when what our kids ultimately end up reading is just as important. The Halo books (not to pick on anyone, it was just the first example that popped into my head) are a good read and very entertaining I'm sure, but they just aren't great literature. They provide entertainment value, but the richness, the depth and complexity of ideas of Hesse, of Shakespeare, of Joyce, of Faulkner is nowhere to be found. I feel like we're almost obligated to try to pass these great literary works down and if we suddenly let students choose light contemporary filler instead, we're doing them a huge disservice and society a huge disservice.

To get you off you're phones.

Because Assassins creed will tell you of the History of one of the worlds grandest churches and the Orthodox that built it and used it and how it fell to the Ottomon turks.

Schools make us read books so that we are literate but thats a poor thing I think since many don't use these literary skills in an efficient way. I learnt more about Grammar online than I did in 10 years of School.

The school system here made we write about things I had no interest or passion in and made me read contemporary works or any book I felt I could read but I don't remember half those works. the benefit of reading classics is that they are classics, they are timeless works which have had a huge impact on the culture or literary world.

Everyone learns differently, but reading has been the way to do it for ever. I agree in the instance of, hey some of the books suck, I loathed reading some books in class. Others I didn't mind, and others, were actually good. It also depends on the school on whats offered. For example we have a class where we watch movies, and then talk and write about movies and learn about that. Just depends on the classes and the school.

Persoanlly, I feel reading is great and fun. BUt some if the crap we have to read, while considered classics, are aweful and scare alot of people off from actaully reading for fun.

[QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

The uninspired and unimaginative way in which schools teach books has most definitely killed the student enthusiasm for reading.

Pirate700

i've read that, i mean forced to read it but never did

so bad

I didn't have any issue with the reading meterial in school. Even if I don't particularly enjoy every book I've had to read (*cough* Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close *cough*), there is still a lot of books that I've come to love that I wouldn't have been exposed to if it wasn't for school.

My biggest problem is the way we are being taught the material in school (this is coming from a senior in high school). This last year my American Lit. class consisted of us reading the book, then sitting around for forty-five minutes a day for weeks listening to the teacher describe every single instance of symbolism in the book, or how the author's philosophy was represented. We took notes and a test, wrote a paper and then moved on. Now don't get me wrong, I actually like learning about stuff like that, and in some instances I can see that being the better way to teach the material. But it was dreadfully boring and for the most part it wasn't very effective for many in the class. I didn't really feel like I learnedabout the book. I just was told a lot of information and memorized it for the upcoming test. In contrast, when I read The Odyssey two years ago for school, our way of talking about the book was open discussion in class where we all could share our analysis of the book. That was a much better environment to foster actual love for reading and learning in general, as the student is way more involved in the experience. We cared about the information that we were learning, and learned just as much as we would have with the other method. Even those who didn't particularly enjoy the book were engaged in the conversation.

Again, I'm not saying that that method is always practical, and applies to all people. After all, all I really have to go on is my personal experiences. There can also be several problems with it. For one, if the class size is enormous, it'd be hard to get input from everyone. Some people also just want to get on with it and not listen to input from everyone in the class, and I also can't see professors in college teaching this way. But at the very least it should be an option, instead of defaulting to the old-fashioned way.