Learning to Read

I've recently re-read some things I read a few years ago, and, as I've finished the books, articles, or whatever it was, I've been astonished to realize that what I read was not about what I thought it was. I read a lot of books in high school, especially my senior year, but my understanding of all the books I read was superficial. Then I went to college and majored in English and, the truth be told, read as little as was necessary. I still graduated with a very nice GPA and a degree in English in spite of it all.

A few years later I circumstancially got a job teaching high school English. Now I was forced to revisit the books I had read, and to read them for greater understanding. As things changed, I ended up teaching first grade - teaching little children how to read. The strange thing is that the six year olds were anxious to read and read very well for their age. The sixteen year olds were anxious to avoid reading and read about as well as the six year olds.

Children begin learning to read as soon as they begin learning phonetic sounds. For several years, their school curriculum includes "reading" as a core subject. Around sixth or seventh grade "reading" becomes a part of "English" or just literature. The assumption is that they now know how to read well enough to read to learn rather than learn to read. However, this is rarely true, even of very good students.

I was a very good student. And yet, I was only mediocre. After I graduated from college I began to read more slowly, thinking about the words, and slowly I truly began to learn to read ... to learn to read to learn.

Is there a place in a high school education to teach reading without it being a truly remedial course? To realize that just because a student can sound out and recognize all the words that doesn't automatically mean their comprehension is where it should be.

And where should it be? It should be the place where a pianist is when she plays to entertain herself. When you read to teach yourself and to amuse yourself, then you know how to read.