Why Johnny Won't Read, Part 2, by Dean Smith

     Bob ran into the same problem in his Brit-lit class that many English teachers have after assigning a classroom novel. The students weren’t reading.        

        He came into a department meeting bent out of shape a few years back.  He was frustrated with his Brit-lit students because they weren’t doing the readings.  He and I have struggled with this same problem for years.  The kids just won’t read the selections in the American-lit or the Brit-lit anthologies and often won’t read the novels either.  When we try to have a discussion over material, we basically end up talking to ourselves for an hour in front of 20 students who are staring blankly at us.  Bob’s frustration this particular day was related to a simple “experiment” that he tried. 

     When the students came into the room, he gave each person an index card and told them that he had two questions to ask them.  Since no one had to put a name on a card, the students could answer honestly without getting into any trouble.  Question one was, “Did you do the reading that was assigned for last night?  ‘Yes,’ means that you did the reading, and ‘No’ means you didn’t.”  

     He then had them turn the cards over, and he asked a second question.  “I want to know if you told me the truth.  Write either ‘I’m telling the truth,’ or ‘I’m lying.’”   He picked up the cards and ALL of the students said that they did the reading, and ALL of the students said that they were telling the truth.  Good, he thought, so he gave them the regular quiz.  Everybody failed the quiz with the exception of about 4 students.  

     What bothered him the most is that they not only lied about doing the reading, but they also lied about lying.   

     I thought about this a moment and then said, “Maybe when the kids say they did the reading, their idea about reading is different from what you and I think it is.  For some students, it means skimming the passage and looking at the questions at the end.  For others, it may mean reading the first and last paragraph and then standing in the hall before class and asking someone else, ‘What happened in last night’s reading?’”

     This exchange got me to thinking about just how much of what we assign to our  students is actually being read.  Our department, like most English departments across the country, is very classicist. We have built a large portion of our curriculum upon the canon, especially for those in academic and honors classes.  So, I decided to conduct a study of my own to look at how much of what we assign is actually being read. Stay tuned.