Taught To Pass Tests, They Don’t Know How To Read Books Essay Example
Taught To Pass Tests, They Don’t Know How To Read Books Essay Example

Taught To Pass Tests, They Don’t Know How To Read Books Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (572 words)
  • Published: April 20, 2022
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The article, “Taught to pass tests, they don't know how to read books”, was written by Robert Zaretsky, where he talks about the deterioration of the reading culture in today’s education system. The article was first published on February 22nd in the year two thousand and sixteen written for the Houston Chronicle. The author develops his thesis by first presenting a real life scenario involving him and his students in one of his courses at the University of Houston where they began reading “Old Goriot”, a novel by Honore de Balzac. The discussion about the novel becomes a one sided conversation active from his side and it becomes established that the students were having trouble reading the novel and that they just didn’t understand it. The author also develops his thesis by looking into the N

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o Child Left Behind Act of 2002, a quite central event in textbook wars. The NCLB turned out to be the cause of more problems in this war even though it was initially meant to save the school systems. In addition to the NCLB Act, Professor Robert also cites technology as a major contribution to the dying reading culture mostly through the social media and the ever presence of electronic gadgets and screens.

The rate at which reading among the American youth is declining is simply depressing and raising concerns for those of us who know the importance of reading. The future of the reading culture is at risk and its deterioration has greatly affected general student literacy. Schools and learning institutions have become a place where students are only trained on how to pass tests and not exactly to gain

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the knowledge. I am of the opinion that the author is absolutely right about his observations and concerns. In learning institutions teacher are forced to teach passing tests as they have become nothing but a competition system where getting good grades and the ranking of students is the main priority.

Students are no longer encouraged to reach out for reading material for extraction of wisdom. In addition to the contribution by teachers and learning institutions, I also put part of the blame on the technology present today. For instance, the presence of social media has deeply impacted the amount of time that kids and the youth devote to reading. The availability of electronic screens has made reading be replaced with activities like watching documentaries, dramatizations and study films. Through these, reading has turned out to be an exception to many. As a result there is very less content prided to students in our universities and colleges.

Another issue is on the response given by the professors once confronted with a serious and complex question. The best response they offer is to either ignore the challenges coming along with the current education system or either embraces it. This one insinuates that they are not even prepared to handle the oncoming challenges. This one really contributes to the current education problems. Again, the reading methodologies they are applying through teaching are inappropriate. The first where the teachers summarize the content of the book with the assumption that they have already read the book is not the best. The other option of watching documentaries and films is not the best also since not all students grasp the content at the

first time. All in all, both methods discourage the reading culture which is contrary to the expectations.

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