What's the point of required reading?

briskjackal5 said:But don't you think you might be kind of an outlier there? 😁

-Stipe

Well... not really. Okay, fine—maybe I did read a bit more than the average kid, but let's be honest, everyone in my circle absolutely loathed required reading. Whether we actually picked up a book or not wasn't the real issue; it was the terrible selection of titles they forced on us.

I mean, some of those books aren't even touched again in college because they're so dense or just focus on specific niche parts—but in high school, they expect you to master the whole thing.

And then there's the stuff that's totally age-inappropriate—you know, things you can only truly grasp once you've actually grown up a little.

Christian Wilson28 said:Well... not really. Okay, fine—maybe I did read a bit more than the average kid, but let's be honest, everyone in my circle absolutely loathed required reading. Whether we actually picked up a book or not wasn't the real issue; it was the terrible selection of titles they forced on us.

I mean, some of those books aren't even touched again in college because they're so dense or just focus on specific niche parts—but in high school, they expect you to master the whole thing.

And then there's the stuff that's totally age-inappropriate—you know, things you can only truly grasp once you've actually grown up a little.

Seriously? So everyone you hang out with also "grew up" in the library, and now that feels like some kind of universal rule to you? 😁

okay, fine, maybe I read a little more than the average student, but honestly, everyone in my group absolutely hated required reading. whether people were reading or not wasn't the issue in my circle—it was just the specific books they picked for us.

So, is the "problem" just because students don't find one specific title to be the most exciting thing in the world out of every possible book they could ever pick?

Because, I mean, that's probably not enough reason to claim there's an actual "problem."
And I guess that shouldn't even be our main criteria when we're deciding which books to choose, right?

and they're totally not age-appropriate, which is something you might only realize once you've aged a bit.

If you grasp 50%, that's still pretty good!

-Stipe

So, I was thinking about how many schools handle their reading lists—it seems like most teachers just pick titles based on what’s actually sitting on the shelves in the school library. It's kind of a practical thing, right? Like, if you've got twenty copies of Pinocchio just gathering dust and maybe only three copies of Winnie Pooh, it honestly makes way more sense to assign the one everyone can actually get their hands on instead of causing a massive shortage.

briskjackal5 said:Seriously? So everyone you hang out with also "grew up" in the library, and now that feels like some kind of universal rule to you? 😁

okay, fine, maybe I read a little more than the average student, but honestly, everyone in my group absolutely hated required reading. whether people were reading or not wasn't the issue in my circle—it was just the specific books they picked for us.

So, is the "problem" just because students don't find one specific title to be the most exciting thing in the world out of every possible book they could ever pick?

Because, I mean, that's probably not enough reason to claim there's an actual "problem."
And I guess that shouldn't even be our main criteria when we're deciding which books to choose, right?

and they're totally not age-appropriate, which is something you might only realize once you've aged a bit.

If you grasp 50%, that's still pretty good!

-Stipe

No, I'm just saying—yeah, maybe I read more than the average person, but it’s hardly a miracle. And honestly, I wasn't some special outlier when it came to hating required reading; people hated those books whether they were avid readers or not.

Look, some titles are actually decent and should stay on the list. But others... good grief, they're practically a death sentence. Of course, people who don't normally read are going to want to read even less after being forced through stuff like that. Not everyone has to love everything, sure, but there are those few specific things that are just painful for everyone—those really ought to be cut.

Back in high school, we had the option to pick five books out of a list of twenty, which was okay, but even then—I would've wanted more choices. Like, fine, let's do Hemingway, but give me a few different works to choose from! Why on earth did we have to do that one guy, Philip? I would've had way more fun analyzing something like *The Catcher in the Rye*. Actually, I did—and I ended up getting three assignments done, but I was basically held up in front of the class as a "bad example," while my classmates were actually clapping for me. And the teacher? Well, they clearly lost their mind. 😬

Quentin Tarantino:

Stipe23 As specified by: You fall into that category of being an "exception to the rule," which makes it rather difficult to apply any kind of broad generalization to you. 😁 Stipe23

No, we really ought to cater to the demographic that only bothers reading the fine print on a bottle of shampoo while sitting on the toilet. It’s because of people like them that a soap opera ended up on the required reading list; honestly, I can't even get through it today without a mountain of footnotes providing translations. At this rate, I might as well just try reading French drama instead. 😁

briskjackal5 said:Seriously? So everyone you hang out with also "grew up" in the library, and now that feels like some kind of universal rule to you? 😁

okay, fine, maybe I read a little more than the average student, but honestly, everyone in my group absolutely hated required reading. whether people were reading or not wasn't the issue in my circle—it was just the specific books they picked for us.

So, is the "problem" just because students don't find one specific title to be the most exciting thing in the world out of every possible book they could ever pick?

Because, I mean, that's probably not enough reason to claim there's an actual "problem."
And I guess that shouldn't even be our main criteria when we're deciding which books to choose, right?

and they're totally not age-appropriate, which is something you might only realize once you've aged a bit.

If you grasp 50%, that's still pretty good!

-Stipe

The real issue arises when you consider that we wouldn't have lost a single second if we had spent that time instead doing something actually productive—like working some mindless side gig for seven bucks an hour while listening to podcasts or hearing Stephen Fry read Harry Potter.

If our guiding principle isn't essentially, "Are the students actually gaining more from this than they would by mindlessly churning out cheap busywork for pennies an hour while listening to a podcast," then we clearly aren't using that as our metric. And we all know, deep down, that it isn't. 😁And just like that, we’re staring down a massive problem. A truly significant one.

We're going to keep having it. 😁 A fish remains entirely unaware of the water surrounding it. It simply exists within that medium, oblivious to the very element that defines its entire reality.

It’s honestly such a struggle trying to get people here to understand—we’re losing readers for a million different reasons. Mandatory school reading lists just make kids hate books entirely. Sure, we have e-books and some local titles available, but let's be real: the selection is thin and nobody is actually promoting it. You can't even borrow e-books from the public library yet, and if you want audiobooks, you're stuck with old CDs that require a disability certificate just to access them? I don't get it. Is this some copyright nonsense or just pure stupidity? It should be as easy as clicking a button, just like an e-book. Honestly, insisting on physical books in a digital age is a losing battle—and refusing to update those outdated school reading lists? Same thing.

Mind you, okay, they have introduced plenty of new and great resources in elementary schools lately—though unfortunately, they've added some idiocy in there too. But high school? It's pretty much the same mess it was back in my day.

Do you actually find audiobooks worth the effort?

In English, there is a massive gulf between an Audible production featuring world-class narrators and something from LibriVox. The latter sounds less like professional storytelling and more like a middle schooler stumbling through a reading assignment in class. I just can't get into it. 😁

Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue.

High school senior here, and honestly? The biggest issue is how we're forced to tackle literature during class periods.

Look, whether a book is actually interesting or "meaningful" is totally subjective anyway. That’s up to you.

The real problem is that instead of diving into the core themes the author is actually trying to say, teachers get bogged down in useless trivia—like asking what specific brand of jeans a character was wearing. Because we're always racing against the clock, even with block scheduling, we rarely have enough time to actually unpack the heavy stuff that actually matters for the SATs.

Sent from my phone via Reddit

Christian Wilson28 said:It’s honestly such a struggle trying to get people here to understand—we’re losing readers for a million different reasons. Mandatory school reading lists just make kids hate books entirely. Sure, we have e-books and some local titles available, but let's be real: the selection is thin and nobody is actually promoting it. You can't even borrow e-books from the public library yet, and if you want audiobooks, you're stuck with old CDs that require a disability certificate just to access them? I don't get it. Is this some copyright nonsense or just pure stupidity? It should be as easy as clicking a button, just like an e-book. Honestly, insisting on physical books in a digital age is a losing battle—and refusing to update those outdated school reading lists? Same thing.

Mind you, okay, they have introduced plenty of new and great resources in elementary schools lately—though unfortunately, they've added some idiocy in there too. But high school? It's pretty much the same mess it was back in my day.

And honestly, this one massive "truth" that everyone seems to swallow whole? It’s just completely and utterly nonsensical.☕
I sometimes find myself wondering how on earth a required reading list can actually make someone hate books altogether. It seems almost counterintuitive, doesn't it? You’d think giving people more stories would foster a love for reading, but I guess when you force a student to grind through some dense, outdated classic just to pass a test, it can really sour the whole experience. Maybe it's that feeling of being trapped by a syllabus, or perhaps it's just the sheer exhaustion of analyzing every single metaphor instead of just letting the story breathe. It's like being forced to eat a gourmet meal while someone stands over your shoulder with a stopwatch and a grading rubric; eventually, you just stop tasting the food and start dreading the next sitting.🤔
If we're assuming that Zornik's mountains are somehow some kind of boring masterpiece—which, I mean, that's a pretty heavy claim to make—then I suppose you’d have to conclude that everything else ever written or painted is just equally tedious. It’s a bit of a slippery slope, isn't it? If one specific work hits that level of monotony, then maybe our entire standard for art is just fundamentally broken, or perhaps we're all just collectively lacking a sense of wonder. I guess if that's the case, then yeah, everything else might just be more of the same.
If we’re looking at the American Renaissance as this grand period meant for soul-searching and confession, I guess you have to wonder if every single era in world literature serves that same purpose. It feels like maybe all of them do, in their own way, though I suppose some are more obvious about it than others.
I suppose if someone actually sits down and makes it through all three books of Dante’s Inferno, they might just be the type of person who leaves all hope behind right there on the sidewalk in front of the New York Public Library.

I mean, there’s really no point in lying to yourselves or anyone else, I guess. It just seems like a lot of unnecessary effort.
The kind of person who lives for those deep, meaningful quotes... well, I guess they’re just going to keep quoting things, no matter what happens.
I guess you’ll eventually run into that one person who complains about a required school reading, and they’ll probably claim that some single bad assignment just totally soured them on books for the rest of their lives.😉

It’s pretty simple—you read three terrible books in a row, decide the fourth one is going to be just as awful, and skip it. But then you never actually find out that the fourth one was actually great.
Or, you just get lucky and stumble onto a winner right away, which gets you hooked on the rest of the series.

And let's face it, there are plenty of trashy titles out there, so that first scenario happens all the time.

But hey, why would you even listen to me? Since I don't agree with you, I guess I obviously have no clue what I'm talking about.

And what do you mean, "whoever loves, will love"? You have to actually *like* someone before you can love them—that's elementary school stuff. Sure, people say it's set in stone by high school, but that doesn't mean things can't change when they need to.

I honestly can't get into them. Our actors feel as fake as those artificial flavorings in cheap ice cream, and don't even get me started on the documentary narrators. I can't imagine anyone reading a book with the same level of quality I've mostly experienced from American audiobooks

Christian Wilson28 said:It’s pretty simple—you read three terrible books in a row, decide the fourth one is going to be just as awful, and skip it. But then you never actually find out that the fourth one was actually great.
Or, you just get lucky and stumble onto a winner right away, which gets you hooked on the rest of the series.

And let's face it, there are plenty of trashy titles out there, so that first scenario happens all the time.

But hey, why would you even listen to me? Since I don't agree with you, I guess I obviously have no clue what I'm talking about.

And what do you mean, "whoever loves, will love"? You have to actually *like* someone before you can love them—that's elementary school stuff. Sure, people say it's set in stone by high school, but that doesn't mean things can't change when they need to.

So, fine—for those who grew up loving books, or kids who started reading way before they ever touched a required school assignment, everyone's going to have different takes on specific titles. Some books might seem brilliant to them, while others might be absolute trash, but collectively, none of it should "kill" their general desire to read.
Besides, nobody is stopping anyone from reading whatever else they want alongside the assigned stuff.
But no, it's much easier to just say, "Because of one bad experience in school, I'm never stepping foot in a public library again." It's a bit dramatic, isn't it?🙄

A true reader isn't going to lose their passion just because of this; most people will simply skip over books they aren't interested in reading anyway. 😂
The real issue lies with everyone else who isn't a dedicated reader. We might be able to draw some of them in by offering better-structured reading lists, but let's be honest—that's a small group. Most people aren't going to read anything beyond storefront signs or clickbait headlines, so we should at least try to have schools mandate high-quality literature. If we can convince even 10% of them, every child matters. 😁

rowdypanther12 said:A true reader isn't going to lose their passion just because of this; most people will simply skip over books they aren't interested in reading anyway. 😂
The real issue lies with everyone else who isn't a dedicated reader. We might be able to draw some of them in by offering better-structured reading lists, but let's be honest—that's a small group. Most people aren't going to read anything beyond storefront signs or clickbait headlines, so we should at least try to have schools mandate high-quality literature. If we can convince even 10% of them, every child matters. 😁

I have my doubts about that, honestly.🤷

I don't doubt it one bit. I actually know plenty of people who didn't really pick up reading until their late teens, mostly because they finally stumbled upon literature that actually grabbed them. It really just comes down to whether you're looking for something to grab your attention or if you're trying to dive deep into specific works.

Who actually grows up reading? It’s usually someone whose parents actively steered them toward books. But what about kids who don't have that guidance at home? I can't help but worry about how many children have parents who just don't read, or never bother signing them up for a library card because they simply don't see the value in it. It honestly scares me a little... And then there's the attitude within our American school system, which seems to be more of a "do whatever" approach. It feels like if a student wants to read, they'll find something on their own regardless of those incredibly dry, incomprehensible classics we're forced to assign, but if they don't, as long as they finish the required reading list, the job is considered done. It's all a bit of a mess, really.

The rest is just minor details, depending on whether you happen to catch a teacher on a good day or a bad one...

Christian Wilson28 said:It’s honestly such a struggle trying to get people here to understand—we’re losing readers for a million different reasons. Mandatory school reading lists just make kids hate books entirely. Sure, we have e-books and some local titles available, but let's be real: the selection is thin and nobody is actually promoting it. You can't even borrow e-books from the public library yet, and if you want audiobooks, you're stuck with old CDs that require a disability certificate just to access them? I don't get it. Is this some copyright nonsense or just pure stupidity? It should be as easy as clicking a button, just like an e-book. Honestly, insisting on physical books in a digital age is a losing battle—and refusing to update those outdated school reading lists? Same thing.

Mind you, okay, they have introduced plenty of new and great resources in elementary schools lately—though unfortunately, they've added some idiocy in there too. But high school? It's pretty much the same mess it was back in my day.

And what exactly would audiobooks make easier? If the content itself is boring, it's going to be boring whether you're reading it or listening to it.😕

Michelle Nelson4 said:Who actually grows up reading? It’s usually someone whose parents actively steered them toward books. But what about kids who don't have that guidance at home? I can't help but worry about how many children have parents who just don't read, or never bother signing them up for a library card because they simply don't see the value in it. It honestly scares me a little... And then there's the attitude within our American school system, which seems to be more of a "do whatever" approach. It feels like if a student wants to read, they'll find something on their own regardless of those incredibly dry, incomprehensible classics we're forced to assign, but if they don't, as long as they finish the required reading list, the job is considered done. It's all a bit of a mess, really.

The rest is just minor details, depending on whether you happen to catch a teacher on a good day or a bad one...

But teachers do read to kids... most schools have libraries, and classes often go on field trips to the public library, so it isn't entirely on the parents to handle everything

And from what I can gather from this discussion, the main issue with required reading isn't usually the books themselves, but rather how some teachers choose to teach them in class.