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KMLA has had a long tradition of enabling students to read at least 40 books a year by the Critical Reading Program. However, the program which has been running fairly smoothly until now has presented a problem recently. Two different views concerning the contents and purposes of the Critical Reading Program have been expressed. One is that the Critical Reading book list should only contain books that are considered as literary classics. The other is that the book list should cover books of many different fields and genres other than just classic literature.
This conflict has come to the stage where the school is removing some of the books that were on the original book list. Some of these banned books include books about different religions and theories about AIDS. These books were considered as not acceptable for the Critical Reading list and were banned after a vote. This leads us to think about the main point. Do Critical Reading book lists just have to be restricted to literature or does the list need assorted books about diverse themes and ideas?
I think that the books of the Critical Reading program should not just be narrowed to just a focus on literary classics. To start off, we need to make a definition of Critical Reading. Critical Reading means that a reader applies certain processes, models, questions, and theories when reading, that results in enhanced clarity and comprehension. Critical Reading gets at the "deep structure" of the book, instead of just a superficial understanding of it.
Many high schools in America have required reading lists, and some have their own Critical Reading Programs. These programs are sometimes used to prepare their students for college. The reading lists of the programs are mainly composed of works of literature that are usually considered as ¡®classics¡¯. The schools¡¯ general opinion is that for students to learn to read critically, they need to study literary classics and get a feeling for the style, form, or the themes of the books. For this process, it is thought that classic literature is the most suitable because they have been approved over the years as being great works of literature. This is the reason why a large portion of schools choose literary classics for most of their reading lists. Also, literature can be useful to us in a way that it teaches us lessons, once we understand beyond the surface meaning. As literature at most times gives us lessons, and even more, new experiences that we haven¡¯t had before, it has been an all-time favorite for reading lists.
On the other hand, there is nothing mentioned in the definition of Critical Reading that the books you read have to be confined to works of literature. As we can see, it is the process of reading critically which is important, not the material that is read. It is crucial for students to acquire a wide range of knowledge, and by reading books of many different subjects is the ideal way to do so. The Critical Reading program is there to help us gain knowledge, not to force us to read books and get high scores on the tests. Since we have to read the Critical Reading books anyway, why not read about an assortment of ideas and notions and learn more? In the book ¡®Creativity: Its Educational Implications¡¯ it is stated that ¡°Diverse reading encourages productive thinking, and productive thinking is directly related to the capacity to learn.¡± (Guilford 153). This emphasizes the importance of reading books more than classical literature. In this point of view, excluding the six books that were thought not to be in the boundaries of classic literature is a foolish thing to do.
Also, classical works of literature have a certain something which is considered as a great ally to the students, but often thought as enemies by the teachers. It is the so-called ¡®notes¡¯ series. Starting with the popular SparkNotes, the series goes on to CliffsNotes, ClassicNotes, PinkMonkey, and so on. I will not say that I haven¡¯t ever read SparkNotes instead of the whole book. Most literary classics have these study aids to ¡®help¡¯ students when they have got no time to read the book. These aids may be highly effective if used properly, but as a substitute for reading books, they can be very detrimental. In this aspect, books other than classical literature make students read the whole book because the books are hardly ever featured in the ¡®notes¡¯.
Teachers have a hard time whenever there is a Critical Reading book test trying to foil the students who just read the notes. The purpose of the Critical Reading Program should not lie on the testing process, but on the process of reading. The presence of ¡®notes¡¯ somehow seem to distort that objective, and just make the students prepared for tests. This way, students will not be able to improve their ability to read critically. Therefore, books which are not under the shadow of ¡®notes¡¯ are the most ideal books for Critical Reading.
Another point is that one of the intentions of the Critical Reading Program is to prepare students to a certain extent for the advanced reading in college. As we cannot expect to read just literary classics in college, we should be able to experience many books, on a wide range of subjects. People are often bewildered when they enter college and first come across the various topics that they have to read about. To avoid this kind of perplexity, students should have a chance beforehand to get used to many different types of books. The Critical Reading Program is a good way to do so, and there should be more books other than literary classics in the reading list.
To come to a conclusion, the Critical Reading Program book list should not just be limited to a collection of literary classics, but should be an assortment of subjects, ideas, and opinions. The phrase ¡®Critical Reading¡¯ itself suggests no limitations concerning the reading material, and books other than literary classics should be included in the list. Also, classical literature may be good on a reading list, but it has the blind spot of various study aids. Books on diverse topics can also prepare us for future, more advanced reading that is expected of us in college and higher level schools. Therefore, I think that it is desirable for some works of literature to be in the list of books, but the list shouldn¡¯t be composed entirely of just classical literature. Overall, I think that having books on varying topics is effective for the improvement of students¡¯ Critical Reading skills. Therefore I conclude this paper by stating that the decision for some books to be kept out of the program because they were considered as out of the boundaries of classical literature was foolish.
Works Cited
Adler, Mortimer J. How to Read a Book. U.S.A.: Simon and Schuster, 1972.
Doherty, Jaqueline. ¡°Meeting Requirements.¡± American School & University 1 Jan. 2000: 14.
Gowan, John Curtis et al. Creativity: Its Educational Implications. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1967.
Kurland, Dan. Strategies for Critical Reading and Writing. 2000. 14 Jun. 2004 http://www.criticalreading.com
Murray, Mary. WC Critical Reading. 2002. The Cleveland State University Writing Center. 12 Jun. 2004
http://www.csuohio.edu/writingcenter/critread.html
Reaves, Jessica. ¡°Goodbye, Mr. Cliffs Notes¡± Time 7 May 2001: 37
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