Don't Tell Me What To Read

"British teenagers slumped from 17th to 25th place in an international league table for reading standards." December 2010

"We should be saying that our children should be reading 50 books a year, not just one or two for GCSE." Michael Gove

"Forcing children to plough through a list of "worthy" texts is not the way to instil a passion for reading.' David Hanson IAPS

"You want weapons? We're in a library! Books, the best weapons in the world. This room's the best arsenal we could have." David Tennant as Doctor Who

Michael Gove's announcement in March that he wished to raise the bar of children's reading and that children as young as 11 years should complete the equivalent of one novel a week stimulated a good deal of discussion in the media. A number of columnists applauded the attempt to place reading at the heart of the revival in educational standards and agreed with the need for a more methodical approach to measure reading in our schools; others, however, including The Children's Laureate, Anthony Browne were not convinced that this was the best way of raising reading standards or encouraging children to read:

"It's always good to hear that the importance of children's reading is recognised - but rather than setting an arbitrary number of books that children ought to read, I feel it's the quality of children's reading experiences that really matter."

Philip Pullman, himself a beneficiary of the Minister's reading lists, also questioned the Minister's statement, saying that he was confusing quantity with quality and that while reading challenges had a lot to commend them, one should not dictate a pathway to children about to start reading. A number of writers spoke out against the suggestion, commenting on the hypocrisy of trying to promote reading given the Government's lack of support for local libraries.

Most focused on the process of teaching children to read, echoing Yeats' 'lighting the fire' as the way to engage children with books - rather than 'filling the pail' by determining and force-feeding a diet of books.

That is not to deny the absolutely central role that reading has in education. While some children might mistakenly feel that reading, like spelling and hand-writing are likely to become less important as technology provides the means to compensate for any short-comings, this is simply not so. The recent statement from the International Reading Society, reflecting on Britain's continuing fall down international league tables says as much:

"Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens and conduct their personal lives. They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn. They will need literacy to feed their imaginations so they can create the world of the future."

So what do we need to do, if we wish to counter the ham-fisted approach of the Minister while meeting his laudable aim of encouraging reading?

What we need to do first is to acknowledge that this is a different world that children live in, full of many different stimuli and choices available and plan our strategy accordingly. While some children read regularly, more children don't read as much now because there are more calls on their time, distractions such as social networking sites, television and the internet. Using such tools (and Kindle could be a very useful weapon in the arsenal) makes sense as a way of making reading attractive. We must also, widen our definition of what is worth reading to include almost anything that develops the skill of reading. Andrea Levy said recently that, despite having passed A level English, aided by the ubiquitous swot notes and revision guides, she did not read a book until she was 23 years old. What is important is not the number of books read, but the ability to read books when the need or interest is awoken.

In this new world order, we need to create a time and a desire to read. We should not try to be too prescriptive and we should acknowledge that we all have different appetites at different ages when it comes to the written word.

Alan Garner, author of the children's classic 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' wrote of his own experience "In my own primary school years I read everything I could find, which amounted to at least four books a week and as many comics as possible. The Beano and The Dandy were equal with Tarzan of the Apes, Enid Blyton, HG Wells, Kipling, wildlife books, fairy tales, encyclopedias."

And that, I suggest, is the experience of all of us, picking away at books ranging in subject matter as technical manuals from fairy stories, building vocabulary, becoming aware of differences of style while absorbing grammar and syntax and an ability to spell.

There are some things we need to guard against. One is forcing our children into reading too young, too young being best defined by 'before they are ready' evidenced by showing a natural curiosity and impatience to pick up a book and read the words. While it might be desirable to be able to boast how young one's children started reading, it is really of no matter. Boys, in particular, whose vocabulary grows slower than that of girls and whose interests are more active than passive at a very young age, may take some time to reach this stage.

We should not worry so much. Children who begin reading two or three years after their peers can catch up in a matter of months once they have the appetite. Moreover, there is considerable danger in pushing children into reading before their natural readiness to do so. Recent research indicates that this leads to children 'guessing' words and being instrumental in reading difficulties in later life.

Even as children mature, reading may not become a habit until adulthood. In fact, while we might not like to acknowledge it, many very successful people who have to deal with the written word in their everyday life, hardly read at all. Further, without wanting to divide the reading world by gender, boys often appear to stagnate for months, even years, as the make their way through school, existing on a minimal diet of books and magazines, but as long as they are interested in learning, they will come back to reading. But we have to accept that for some long time it may only be football programmes and sports books, as it was for me for some significant time in my young life.

The key is getting children to want to read. We need to show them that books are not only a source of information and entertainment, but can feed their own interests. Reading schemes in schools can work well, (but not necessarily centred around the number of books read), author visits, being read to, developing a reading culture in our homes and any number of methods to interest and stimulate children in wanting to read are all useful. And we need to look at how the impact of testing, and the time given over to it, affects our reading patterns. If A Level English, for instance, is not succeeding in encouraging reading, then we need to restructure our courses, purge the reading lists and look at how much encouragement is given to the reading, rather than the dissection, of books in the first place.

Reading is at the core of learning and we are right to be concerned about dropping standards, but we need to approach the problem in a way that will be sustainable and practical in an ever busier world. We need to create the hunger for books. We need to make sure reading has a point other than to help pass a test. And, sometimes, we just need to be patient.

Peter Tait

October 2011