Readicide

What should schools do?

In school, most of our classes go the same way, as for reading. You read a boring book or two, and then they let you choose your own and do pretty much the same project just for a different book. It’s repetitive, and most kids don’t like it. A lot of kids our age hate reading, and those who like reading, like it less because of the books we read, and the projects we do. It’s all the same. We just want to read. I understand that we have to learn something, and without the worksheets and quizzes and projects most students wouldn’t read the books, if they do anyway, or they wouldn’t get anything out of it. But I’m sure there’s another way, something to make it more interesting. I think the solution is, change it up. Choose more books, genre fiction books that have the same lesson, just easier to read, unlike Shakespeare, something that isn’t made of art thous, and language we don’t understand. Why do we have to study these things and learn about them, when they have nothing to do with life today? Sure there is some underlying message, but students can learn that in newer books. I can’t think of a single job where it’d be necessary or even helpful to have read Macbeth. In English, I’m currently reading To Kill a Mockingbird and sure it’s not horrible, but it’s not as interesting as The Help, the book I’m reading in here. These books are dated and the least schools can do is swap them for more enjoyable books that we’ll be able to relate to or at least understand! As for the projects, they’ve been around probably as long as the books have. I have been doing pretty much the same project every year since third grade. You pick a book, you give a summary. Of course there’s more to it than that, but it’s all the same. Some teachers try to spice it up, pick songs and compare the lyrics to the main idea or theme of the book! No. It doesn’t make it less dreadful, in fact, I hate finding songs that relate to my book. I think it’s horrible, it’s not a fun activity, and the teachers think it’s creative, but they are not the only teacher who has thought of that. They give you points for creativity, but sometimes it’s hard to be creative and you can’t think of anything. I shouldn’t get points of because I couldn’t find some glitter. The grade should be based on how well I know the book, or what I’ve included in my project. It’s a simple problem, with a simple solution. Times have changed, so should the books, and so should the projects. We get graded on being creative, so the teachers should be more creative with the projects.