An Illusion of Free Reading

Last week’s Washington Post article, “Question for the Ages: What Books When?” included some choice quotes from Jon Scieszka, newly minted U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature . “There is nothing sadder than making books only a school project,” Scieszka said. “Reluctant readers don’t want to be quizzed at the end of every chapter. They don’t want to feel like they are stupid.”

The article used this quote in the context of educators being “less willing to experiment with new or unusual books” in the face of No Child Left Behind. I’m sure there’s a lot to that, but to me, Scieszka's quote spoke less about the importance of teachers’ reading choices for their students and more about students’ own choices.

So, I was glad to see yesterday’s Chicago Tribune article, “In Praise of ‘Stupid Reading’: Author a Voice for Kids’ Choice”. It describes Scieszka’s support of all free-reading choices: comics, magazines, online stuff, audiobooks, nonfiction, ‘stupid’ books, and so on. People familiar with Scieszka’s work—his own writing or his literacy advocacy efforts—won’t find any surprises here. But it’s great that his message is being spread by the big-time media.

In the public library, from the school assignments I see, I feel like I’m seeing Scieszka’s message being taken half to heart. I see a lot of genre reading assignments for elementary school students; students are assigned to read a book of their choice that fits that month’s assigned genre. (This is in addition to books read as a class.) So, on the pro side, kids are responsible for choosing the book they read. On the con side, they’re still fulfilling requirements set by the teacher. It’s still, as Scieszka puts it, “only a school project.” It isn’t truly free reading.

The genre assignment that really kills me is “humorous fiction.” Nothing drains the funny from funny like analysis. Children will choose funny books all on their own (and God knows, there are plenty to choose from), so there’s something distinctly and distastefully ironic to me about requiring a child to read a funny book as part of a school assignment.

My hope is that in addition to group reading assignments and these genre reading assignments. But that seems like almost too much to hope, for the average kid. When so much energy is being spent on assigned reading, and “free” reading in the context of a school assignment, is there any left to simply enjoy?