Reading Lasts a Lifetime by Christopher

Reading Lasts a Lifetime by Christopher - March 2017 Scholarship Essay

In today’s literary age, reading is one of the most crucial aspects anyone can take from the classroom, let alone one’s daily life. It builds critical thinking and analytical skills that further a child's vital language usage. However, reading has lost touch with today’s students. Some are not motivated and the level of comprehension goes to show how reading is losing its impression on students. There’s a growing epidemic due to the surge regarding social media, cell phones, and other personal devices. By implementing reading in the classroom on a daily basis, a student’s ability towards thinking critically and comprehending a text will improve substantially; however, this would be scratching the surface where reading can benefit an individual's daily life.
In my experience, I’ve fallen behind on reading and now it’s coming back to haunt me, which is why I’m a big advocate for pushing students to read. One major concern, I personally believe, is that kids now are not taking reading seriously, and I think by starting students at a young age to appreciate reading will produce good habits that will carry on with them into their adult lives. Now, by being a student of an Ap Language class I’ve learned to grow a true appreciation for a literary piece and this has improved my reading and analytical skills ten fold. Looking back, I just wish reading was enforced on me at the start of my high school campaign, let alone my middle school and elementary years. I believe this is something the English departments across the United States should consider when trying to lend a helping hand towards the ones who are willing to work towards improving their skills.
However, I’m not alone cause toward this prevalent nature; according to the National Center for Education, “Ninety-three million adults in the U.S. read at or below the basic level needed to contribute successfully to society.” This goes to show how the reading ability, not only from my generation but also the parents’ have lost the enjoyment that reading is supposed to bring and has added to the widespread problems kids face today. It’s tough to say that reading must be crammed down an individual's throat; though, it’s almost to the point where it must prevail and teachers as well as students, must take action to stop the situation from getting out of hand.
To that juncture, teachers such as Mrs. O. Dalton, head teacher at Lakenham elementary school, has taken noticed with her claim, “Reading is an important aspect that needs to be enforced on children when they are young. This can be done by guided reading practice with a teacher or individual who is willing to sit down with the student to further their reading skills.” By doing so, sitting with the child who is reading can help the student pronounce words that will increase their vocabulary skills which will translate into a better understanding of what they read. Also, author Barbara Freedman expresses in her article Why is Reading so Important that, “having the child read out loud to the adult will expose them to proper grammar usage which can also help develop the language side of things.” Individuals such as Dalton and Freedman are working strenuously to polish students’ reading ability that will assist in one’s development and translate into their adulthood.
To that note, the more one reads the better they get at it. It will increase their rhetorical skills, increase their word usage, and help them absorb new context that is crucial to the child’s developmental process. In accordance with Whytoread.com, the authors claim that “it will also stick with them throughout their adult lives where they will have to implement these skills while looking through useful information such as analyzing a cookbook for a new recipe to reading the information label on the side of a medicine bottle.” Being able to pick up word for word what something is expressing is a part of life and it ultimately depends on the ability to read.
Though reading can be enforced by teachers or even parents, nowadays students won’t even pretend to read, instead, they will explicitly come out and express that they did not take the time too. Through the growth of an age where reading becomes irrelevant to most, the best way to fight this widespread decline in reading is to hammer down on the English classes who can control the fate of a student’s literacy skills. Not saying that it will completely diminish this attitude; however, it gives the ones who want to be well-educated individuals in today’s society a fighting chance. To close, reading can be implemented in schools around the United States, but it is entirely up to the character of that individual towards taking advantage regarding this incentive.