Reading and College
Originally Posted 5/19/24
Intro
I'm writing this post because I just read this article called "Is This the End of Reading?" by Beth McMurtrie, and had a lot of thoughts. I'll mostly be using quotes from the article to launch into points I'd like to talk about.
First I want to just say my sort of first impressions. When I first saw this article on Cohost, people were pointing to the quotes about how students do not see the point in reading for class anymore. And that is something I wholeheartedly agree with. I graduated college just a few years ago, and at the beginning of every semester, when professor would put out their book list, it'd always be a question me and my classmates would ask: is it worth buying the textbook for whichever class? Is the teacher going to actually use it? Is the information in it actually unique, or can I just Google what the teacher wants us to learn from the book? There are some quotes I'll probably be referencing later in this post about how students feel college is a lot more transacational now, and I think that's a huge factor. If it feels like I'm only buying a textbook becasue someone wants me to buy it, why would I care about it?
This article ended up being longer than I originally thought, so I've created a menu so you can click to get to a certain part:
That difficulty in processing information seeps into other functions as well, Sarafova says. "Note-taking now requires specific instruction on what to write down and how to organize it. Also, a lot of students are unable to rephrase a statement without changing the meaning, often in drastic ways that clearly contradict the core of the statement."
The first part of this quote, about note taking needing specific instruction, is something I feel to my core. Throughout all of my schooling, I never understood how to take good notes. I seemed to always take notes of exactly the wrong things. Or I'd end up highlighting or taking notes about everything and so when I'd go to study it was basically like rereading the entire text. It can be hard in a lot of fields to know what exactly is important to know, and what isn't.
Young people are reading less for pleasure, too. In 2020, only 17 percent of 13-year-olds surveyed said they read for fun almost every day. That figure was 27 percent in 2012 and 35 percent when data collection began in 1984, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The article does talk about it a bit, but I think maybe our idea of what counts and doesn't count for reading may be a bit... misleading? For me seeing headlines saying things like "Kids don't read anymore", I think "Wow, so they're only watching videos?". But, I think about myself and sure, while I haven't read a book for fun in years (just started again this year funnily enough), I would spend hours a day browsing reddit and reading articles, comments, and news articles there. Or I'd be writing or reading video scripts for school. And so while I wasn't doing the traditional "reading", I was still reading and writing in a new way. However, maybe that's still not want people are worried about. Maybe they do just mean book reading because there's something different about it. But just seems odd to me when talking about a subject like this there usually isn't a distinction made.
I had a professor in college who tried something with my class. Our class was half in person, half online due to COVID. In order to promote discussion, he used a website (I forget which one off the top of my head) where you had to make a post about the weekly reading or movie, include a few sources, and also comment on a few other peoples posts. It was honestly a pretty interesting system that I ended up enjoying. At the end of the semester, I spoke with my professor about this setup, and he also seemed to really like the results. He spoke about how usually he'd have students write papers on the readings, and students would struggle with reaching the desired length. But by letting students basically talk about whatever they wanted, as long as it related to the reading, students wrote more and generally were more engaged with the material. He pointed out that by the end of the semester, I must've written enough to fill up a couple of essays, but it didn't feel like that along the way. Of course, there were some students who did the bare minimum to get by, but I thought this was a really interesting way to go about things personally. Tying it back to the quote above, I was doing plenty of reading and writing while doing this, but just not from a textbook.
I have a lot of students who think they've already mastered the art [of writing], and other students who've never been required to really try," says Gutierrez, the Wellesley professor, who attributes students' declining literacy skills to minimal writing requirements in high school and receiving good grades for mediocre work. "And then when you throw in the communication cultures that they already exist in, at least to me, a picture starts to emerge which shows a pretty clear and consistent message that our culture implicitly makes: The kind of writing I might ask of my students isn't that important.
This quote makes me think about how I really agree with his sentiment - the type of writing and projects done in college often don't feel important at all. I remember when I was in the teaching program at my school, a big part of our grade (due to state guidelines) was coming up with an extremely in depth lesson plan. It seemed so in depth and big that I didn't see how regular teachers had time to make one with everything else they did. Once we started shadowing teachers, I began to ask them how they structured their lesson plans and such. The answer I got every time was that they no longer did lesson plans, because it simply wasn't useful to what they were doing. Or, I should say, lesson plans that were setup the way they had to be for the state. They did have a general plan on what they'd like to teach when, resources for it, etc.
Now, I do know part of the argument for college and learning certain things is that it'll teach a skill that will be useful in life. But I know for me at least, and a few of people I went to college with, it was hard to care about those sort of things when I was paying so much for a degree. I wanted to be taught what would be useful to me in my career, not extra things. Maybe if college was cheaper or I had more time, then I'd be receptive to having a more well rounded education. But when you're spending so much money to be somewhere, you want to feel like you're getting your moneys worth rather than it feeling like your schedule is filled with fluff.
Professors tell her that students are doing less academic work outside of class. She attributes that to their hectic lives, in which, on any given day, school may not be their first priority.
This was something that always frustrated me about school. At least for the college I went to, the college seemed either indifferent or in the dark about the fact students have jobs. From last minute scheduling changes, to expecting you to be free any time during the week for assignments, going to school while working is tough. I often felt so frustrated because when I would try to go to administration at my school, or professors, about what to do to get extra help, the answer was to simply work less so I'd be more free for professor office hours or tutoring. But, without working, I wouldn't be able to afford school. It just felt like being squeezed from both sides constantly - school wanting me to dedicate more time to it, but living expenses wanting me to dedicate more time to work.
They want a very specific roadmap," Charlton says of undergraduates. "They don't necessarily want to have to go to class face-to-face. They want to know exactly what they need to do to be successful in the course, but they want to put in the minimum amount to sort of check the box. 'I did this assignment. I did the thing I have to do. And that's it. I've given all I have to give.'
This quote too touches upon what I mentioned above - it's hard to really want to care for extra classes you're forced to take, when you only have so much time in a day as well as you're paying so much. You want to feel like you're focusing on classes that are important to you and your future, rather than just sort of gen eds. On top of that, school itself really feels just like checking a box. So many people I know don't work in the field that they have their degree in, and I know personally I don't feel like my degree has helped me other than for employers to see and go "ah, yes, you have this piece of paper". What seemed more valuable to me was internships, but of course it's hard to do those while either not in college or when you're not getting paid to do them.
Blum, who has written about how stultifying traditional schooling is to many students, has embraced new forms of communication in her courses, turning to video or podcasts when it seems appropriate. While she is as critical as many of her peers are of the way reading is taught in schools — encouraging students to mine texts to perform well on standardized tests — she also thinks educators should consider presenting information through other forms of media when planning their courses. "If over and over and over again there's a problem with what you're asking students to do, then consider doing something else."
I wanted to just touch upon this quote because I felt fortunate in both High School and College that a lot of professors were open to me making films rather than doing certain assignments. My background is in video production and so it often felt great if I was able to instead make something that showed what I had to research or present on rather than writing a paper. Because ultimately of course, the important part is that students learn the material, so was always nice when I could demonstrate that with a video or other more creative option than just a paper.
These changes in behaviors, outlooks, and personality traits connect to another national trend: Americans are increasingly isolated and losing social connections.
I was actually just thinking about this the other day. When I was in late high school and community college, I never really considered myself popular. I did have about 3 different friend groups I'd float between, and would talk to them and hang out pretty regularly. We'd go hiking, have bonfires, that sort of thing. But starting with 4 year school, and continuing after, the amount of people I see and stay in contact with gets ever smaller. And I think that's just part of growing up, but it's hard not to look back and think "man, I wish I had that much social interaction now a days".
This also reminds me of a story from when I was in community college. I was in class one day and our professor, who was a bit on the older side, posed a question to the class. He said when he first started teaching, and even when he was a college student, it seemed like people did things on the weekend. Go to the local ice cream bar, ride bikes, hand out, etc. But now, whenever he asks students what they did on the weekend, they mostly answer with nothing. And he was wondering if we're just shy to tell him, or what. And I ended up piping up and saying it's just hard. Usually if I'm not at school I'm working. And if I'm free and want to hang out, often my friends are working. On the off chance we're all free at the same time, finding something to do that didn't cost too much was a hard task in and of itself. And so often there was just no one to hang out with, because schedules just didn't align. Others seemed to nod in agreement to that statement. And so yeah, I think it's just hard for most college kids now because so many of them have to work, so when do you have time to enjoy yourself with friends?
Wrap Up
This was a bit of a longer post, but I hope you enjoyed. Let me know your thoughts by reaching out to steventanzimedia@gmail.com