The Reading Debate

There was an interesting article in the New York Times last month concerning what it means to read in the digital age. As an English teacher, I found the article rather intriguing. The focus was on how kids these days are reading and the debate about whether reading online is really "reading," the point being that reading online is not the same as reading in a traditional book for example. That seems obvious, but obviously traditional books have a clear beginning, middle, and end whereas online kids surf from link to link to link. No wonder attention spans are shrinking.

I'm not knocking reading online. I read all my newspapers online and I read lots of magazine articles online. What intrigues me is the debate around it and also the potential. The naysayers contend that reading things like MySpace and FanFiction is the equivalent of "empty calories." I can see this side of it; surfing from one link to the next requires a shorter attention span, yet on the other hand, so much information is so much more easily accessible than it was before the internet.

As a teacher, I find sites like The Orwell Prize and The Samuel Pepys diary both innovative ways to get kids to read literature. The diaries of both George Orwell and Samuel Pepys are posted online daily as a blog. I don't know too many high school kids these days who would pick up the multivolume Pepy's diary but they might read it online. As both blogs come out daily in single date entries it goes back to that short attention span thing, but at least kids would be reading. Both sites, of course, include hyperlinks to more detailed information.

In the New York Times article, there was a quote from historian David McCullough: “Learning is not to be found on a printout. It’s not on call at the touch of the finger. Learning is acquired mainly from books, and most readily from great books.” I like the stodginess of McCullough!

Since I am an old fogey and did all my college research in books (remember those old green Reader's Guides?) , I'm just a purist for books. I love the crisp pages and the smell of ink. I adore musty, moldy old library stacks and could get lost in them for days. I like being able to touch the words. But I also think that internet reading has something to offer kids and as a teacher I see it as a tool to be used rather than a scurge to discourage.