When was the last time you finished reading a book? Even as an English major, I have struggled to answer that question. It seems that, in a time when entertainment is more accessible than food or water, books do not seem attractive to the general public. Sep. 8 is National Literacy Day, and people are struggling to read.
English as a study is more than summarizing “The Great Gatsby.” It is the study of all written communication, and helps people in many different fields, even math related ones such as finance.
“I teach a course entitled The Literature of Business and Finance,” English professor James Pettit said. “When I was choosing the readings, I was amazed at the number of successful people in the investment world who were English majors in undergrad.”
I was not in any advanced English classes in high school, and in these normal level classes, my teachers would tell us that some books are “too hard.” It made me feel like I was too stupid to understand Shakespeare, instead of inspiring me to push myself, which made me stop participating.
“Generally speaking, I find students unresponsive to discussions,” communications professor Pat McGuire said. “It appears that students are getting further and further away from the magic line in the classroom [the seats closest to the instructor.]”
Books are power; they allow us to reach into the past—or future—and experience something new and beautiful. Without them, we are lifeless. Despite the general disinterest, there are people who have hope for the next generation of readers.
“I’ve had students read an entire chapter book for the first time in my class since their early education and, as a result, express enjoyment and feelings of success,” assistant professor Vanelis Rivera said. “That makes me hopeful.”
Read something short, anything at all. I recently read the short story “All You Zombies” by Robert A. Heinlein and really enjoyed it. College literacy is something we all influence; the only question is if we will work together to fix it.
“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us,” Ray Bradbury wrote in “Fahrenheit 451.”
