FEATURE

AS If Reading Is A Boredom

    WHEN students cringe at the very mention of a reading assignment, their attitude towards it is symptomatic of a wrong perception that reading is such a boring, if not a pestering, task.

    But, hey! What are these students doing in my literature classes, the major and primary requirement of which is reading?

    It is easy to spot students who don't read. Usually they have nothing to share during class discussions. When asked to highlight and expound some pertinent points in a literary piece, they become tongued-tied despite their talkative nature. They are just glued to their seats, like lifeless statues, staring blankly into empty space as if hypnotized by a magician doing silly tricks. When the bell rings, they become automatons, rising spiritedly to their feet as if signaling to the teacher that his or her time is ready up.

    When these same students are asked to write something (an essay, for instance), I find it hard to swallow the reality that their "compositions" are written by college students. Grammar is poor, if not very poor. Half of the words are grossly misspelled. Their scant vocabulary makes them grope for words. And an elementary explanation of their thoughts and ideas becomes circuitous, cliched and pointless. What you get, then, is not a decent essay but a piece of rubbish to be condemned forever inside the trash can.

    I feel madly homicidal, too, when I read and check papers from  these students. I find it hard to reconcile their being college students and the way they poorly write. And what torpedoes my sanity most is an unreadable penmanship that looks like cryptic codes scribbled by a six-headed alien from outer space.

    As soon as I return their papers, I already expect the raising of their eyebrows upon finding my comments and remarks on their papers written in bloody-red ink.

    These students who are apathetic towards reading are figures of irony and paradox. They know by heart all the characters in telenovelas and soap operas but find it hard to write a simple essay. They can spend the entire day with their celfones sending lousy, stupid messages (in butchered spelling!) but can't bear to spend five minutes with a book.

    Alas, our hi-tech, dotcom society how is producing computer-addicted and MTV-worshipping school children and teenagers who have no more time for reading books and other worthwhile activities.

    Why is this so? Has technology deaden our students' appetite to read? Do technological gadgets like computers and mobile phones rob us of the pleasures of reading? I thought technology should further and advance the appreciation and cause of literature. But I observe its effect is to the contrary.

    As a reading advocate, I can't help but be alarmed at the loss if interest towards literature by students who have the means to immerse themselves in what books have to offer them.

    I personally grew up, fortunately, in an environment where reading materials are aplenty. My lola had since kept a treasury of Reader's Digest magazines (many issues of which date back to the 1960's) and books in paperback editions (because hardbound books were and are still expensive). They have long been kept in a bookcase at home that it is not unusual to find some book scorpions creeping stealthily in between their old, faded pages. (Anyway, there are naphthalene balls to keep these paper-eating creatures in check.)

    British writer Thomas Carlyle stated more than a century ago: "All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books." It takes an imbecilic person to refute this very wise observation.

    How truly rewarding when ones sees the real true value and worth of reading. It's a treasure money can't buy. We read for fun and pleasure. We read for insights and discovery. We read to boost and enhance our intelligence. We read to be extricated from the enslavement of ignorance.

    On this note I feel safe to say that there are two types of students: those who read and those who do not. The students who read are inevitably the ones who can write and fare better in school.