Post 1 - To the students out there: "Reading Is Thinking"

As a high school English teacher and now a professor at Wabash College, I’ve encountered tons of students who are not readers.  Students who either never caught the bug for reading or lost it somewhere along the way.  They’re students, like all of you, so come on – they read, but most of them, like some of you, have become so good at playing the game of school, they’ve developed effective ways around reading. 

I know the reluctant and struggling readers out there claim not to like reading, so you simply avoid it whenever possible.  And when you think you're not very good at reading, you sometimes give up and just figure out how to get by without reading very much – if at all.   

I realize this happens every day in schools, but I’m an optimist, who can be pretty relentless in the classroom.  I believe it’s never too late to become a reader.  You’re all reading way more than you think anyway.  Consider all the reading you do every day on social media or when playing video games.

I see part of my life’s work as convincing self-proclaimed non-readers that reading holds a promise of adventure, enlightenment, and humanity.  Reading is not about passing a test! Reading is thinking.  And you adolescents are great thinkers! 

So, to all those reluctant and struggling readers out there.  You know who you are.  We teachers -- we’ve got you.  We know you’re good at avoiding reading, but we also know you can become better, more engaged readers if you find topics and texts that interest you.  There’s a lot of great stuff out there to read, not just what we think you should be reading in school. 

We get it – as soon as we “assign” something to read, you’re out.  Of course, we want you to read books -- classics and contemporary, fiction and nonfiction.  But, we also know you may want or need to work your way up to the commitment of reading books. 

Bottom line is we want you to read not because we say so, but because it’s good for you.  Geez, did I just write that in a blog for adolescents?  Sorry!  It's so cliché, but it’s sooooo true. 

As you read more of my blog posts, I hope I can convince you.  For now, check out what these famous people are reading!

Jimmy Kimmel’s summer book club:

o   Announcement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRkZNEcLHuw

o   The winner is a YA novelhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE_qToRRBTc

o   Interview with author: https://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/exclusives/summer-reads

Andrew Luck’s book club:

o   Website: http://andrewluckbookclub.com/

Reece Witherspoon’s book club:

o   https://hello-sunshine.com/book-club

I would love to hear from you – what other famous people have you seen on social media promoting reading?  Can you think of your own reasons to be life-long readers?  Are there books about famous people you would recommend?  What else do you read?