In October 2006, as part of the Middle School History Reading Initiative, one of the Year 9 sets was asked to read Mildred Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. This is a novel set in Mississippi in the 1930s. It tells the story of a black family, the children in particular, and the injustices of the race question in the South. The narrator is a teenage girl called Cassie. The following is the response of one boy who did not manage to finish the book.
I think that the Middle School History Reading Initiative is a good idea as it encourages us to learn about historical events. It offers a much more entertaining way of learning about history and many students will prefer novels to textbooks or the internet. However, it would be made better if more well-known books by more renowned authors were chosen. This would add more enjoyment to the reading and the books would most likely be easier to understand. This means that everyone will be able to enjoy learning about famous past events.
Reading is a very big deal. It is a good way for us to improve our range of vocabulary and our spelling which will help us to write better essays. I do not think that reading about children is particularly better than reading about adults. However, it is easier to understand how the child characters feel in books as we may have had similar experiences. History reading is usually, in my experience, harder to read. This is because there may be language that they used in the past but not anymore or we may not be able to understand some of the attitudes/behaviour expressed in the past if we have not experienced them ourselves. On the contrary, you could argue this is better as it will improve both our language and our understanding of what people were like in the past.
I do not think the matter of time is an issue in reading as I believe we can always find time to read. For example, we could read on the journeys to and from school and before we go to bed, etc. By doing this we could find at least an hour to read each day. The only thing restricting our reading is ourselves. I think the school is doing enough to encourage reading but the rest is up to us. I do not think the school should make reading compulsory as we should read because we want to – not because we are forced to. Though, I think that the school should recommend good historical novels to read and give us more books to read in class.
Subon Sivananthan 9Sb
Does anyone have a response to this piece?
